Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 511 The way to save the crisis

On the south bank of Fenshui, battalions of soldiers crossed the temporary bridge.

The bridge has been built for several days, and the water rose several feet overnight, almost submerging near the camps of the two armies.

The sergeants waded through the stagnant water, struggling to expand the defense line to the outside, so that the follow-up army could come over.

Liu Xun led two thousand Jin soldiers to line up on the dry high ground. He first shot with a powerful crossbow, and after being suppressed, he rushed down to the high ground to meet the Jiangzhou army that had just arrived.

What Shao Shude saw from the watchtower on the other side of the river was such a funny scene: Thousands of people from both sides waded through the river up to their calf bones, and walked in the yellow mud soup with difficulty. It's like a fake sparring to the extreme.

He hurriedly went down from the watchtower, got on his horse under the guard of his own soldiers, and walked towards the other side of the river.

A sentry cavalry came running from afar.When he got close, he got off his horse and jumped into the water. He rolled up to Shao Shude's horse, and reported: "General Xu has gone downstream to find a place to ford and cross the river, and is ready to pursue the bandit army."

"Let him seize the opportunity, chase after him fiercely, and keep as many enemy troops as he can!"

"Obey!" After finishing his salute, Shao hurriedly left.Wherever it went, water splashed.

The temporary bridge was very wide, and the guards carefully pulled the horse's bridle and escorted Shao Shude across the river.

The fight continued as if in slow motion.

Looks haphazard, but very bloody.The Jin soldiers were desperate, trying to prevent Xia Jun from chasing and killing them.This makes people a little bit surprised, what kind of life are you playing with a reward of a few coins?
The pursuit began as soon as the river was crossed.

In addition to the [-] cavalry of the Tielin Army led by Xu Hao, Meng Zhixiang and Murong Fu also dispatched with [-] cavalry from their bodyguards, following the direction where the enemy was retreating, and pursued bravely.

More and more infantry crossed Fenshui.

Under the command of the officers, they outflanked the past from both wings, and gradually squeezed the only two thousand Jin soldiers who were still resisting to the corner.

Shao Shude withdrew his gaze and rode his horse up a high slope with his own soldiers.

It must have been several years?In the past few years, he has rarely been on the front line of fighting.Generally, they are commanded from the rear of the town and coordinate the overall situation.

After all, Shuai and Jiang are not the same.

Thanks to his "blessing", the opportunities for the Iron Forest Army to fight the enemy face-to-face have become less and less, so that Shao Shude is worried about whether these guys will be raised and disabled.

Now it seems that everything is fine.A few years will not degenerate.If it is longer, for example, if you have not seen blood for more than ten or twenty years, it may be really useless, because veterans who have experience and dare to fight are old enough, and newcomers grow slowly in a good life, then it is really perfect. Duzi - just like the Bianliang Forbidden Army in the period of the last emperor of the Later Liang Dynasty, the equipment was first-class, but the Tianwu Army ranked second in combat power was despised by Li Cunxu, thinking that they were not as capable as the predecessors in Zhu Quanzhong's period.

"Send someone to persuade Liu Xun to surrender." Shao Shude said, looking at the Jin soldiers who were struggling.

Wang Yao, whose legs were covered in mud, ran over and said, "Uncle, Wang Ke has led people to escape first, but there are still [-] bandits in the army, and they abandoned the camp in a hurry. How could they all run so fast? My nephew asks to lead troops in pursuit, and I will behead Wang Ke and offer it to you."

Shao Shude glanced at him, smiled, and said: "Nephew, don't be impatient. I have sent cavalry to chase after the detour. If the bandits only care about running for their lives, they will definitely win. If there is an ambush after the breakup, it will not be too big. Loss. Sergeants in Jiangzhou are exhausted from fighting for a long time, so let’s rest here first.”

"It's still my uncle who is thoughtful, and my nephew is not." Wang Yao suddenly realized and praised.But the expression on his face, no matter how you look at it, there is a sense of loss and unwillingness.

On the other side of the battlefield, the fighting has come to an end.Five thousand Jiangzhou soldiers, plus four thousand Tielin troops who surrounded from the left and right wings, stepped on the muddy yellow soup, slipped step by step, and almost completely squeezed the remaining thousand enemy soldiers into Fenshui.

"General Liu, your family is all in Hedong, so why sacrifice your life for Wang Ke? My commander-in-chief said that those who abandon their weapons will not die. If you surrender, let you go, how about it?"

There were dozens of people shouting, all with loud voices, scattered all over the place, they must be heard by these Jin soldiers.

The soldiers of Jin who were about to fight to the death were all moved when they heard this, their hands slowed down involuntarily, and they looked at the general Liu Xun with expectant eyes.

Liu Xun sighed secretly, and looked at the post road in the southwest.

Wang Ke ran away first with more than 2000 cavalry, followed by thousands of Tao Jianzhao's troops.The main force of Zhang Hanyu's department has been destroyed, and even he himself has been lost on the north bank of Fenshui.

In the end, among the more than [-] people, one-third of them would have to burn incense if they could escape back, and most likely there were not so many.

The army was defeated like a mountain!Wang Ke's Jiedushi throne has already lost more than half.

And just as he was thinking, a large group of soldiers of the Tielin Army had already bypassed not far away, chasing and fleeing along the direction of Pu Jun's retreat.

After their breakup, it doesn't make any sense.

"Surrender!" Liu Xun was disheartened and threw the spear into the muddy water.

More than a thousand soldiers of the Jin army also lost their equipment, and their faces were full of relief.

"Confiscate the equipment. People will take care of it first, and then arrange manpower to send them to Danguan Pass and hand them over to Kang Junli." Shao Shude ordered.

"As ordered."

……

On the Pujiang section of Taiyuan Dayi Road in Chang'an, the defeated troops stretched for hundreds of miles.

From Qin Village in the north, to Baoding County and Fendian in the south, and Xinyidian where Wang Ke, the fastest runner, was temporarily stationed, there were soldiers lying on the side of the road panting everywhere.

He left in such a hurry that he didn't even have time to bring food and water, so he fled with the officer in a daze.As a result, they fled and got separated. The officers couldn't find the soldiers, and the soldiers couldn't find the officers. They were in a mess.

There was a rush of hoofbeats.

Pu Bing, who was cooking in the dilapidated temple by the roadside, hurriedly extinguished the fire, not daring to make a sound.

Fortunately, the cavalry did not stay here, and they pursued southward like lightning.

The sergeants are very happy, go chase, chase those generals, don't come to harm our big soldiers.

This battle was lost in a muddle!All of a sudden, I heard that Bei'an was defeated and was about to run away. The low-level sergeants had limited information channels. They didn't know how they lost, let alone why the big shots ran away. After that, I don't know how many people will be killed by him.

Meng Zhixiang, a thousand households of guards, led three hundred cavalrymen, and looked at the broken soldiers hiding in the grass by the roadside, hiding among the villages, and sitting on the ridges of the fields, and didn't bother to care at all.

The most important thing now is to catch up with Wang Ke.

Although there is little hope, Wang Ke probably has a lot of horses, but people have to have dreams, don't they?What if you get caught?

The horse continued to gallop forward.

Suddenly a hundred or so rout soldiers rushed out from the side of the road.Meng Zhixiang was startled, subconsciously pulled out his riding bow, and shot two consecutive arrows, killing one of them.

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!" The leader of the rout soldiers hid behind a tree and shouted: "I will wait for my wish!"

"Go away!" Meng Zhixiang was too lazy to talk to these people, flicked his horsewhip, and continued to move forward.

"But the soldiers of the Jiangzhou king's envoy? I'm willing to surrender." The leader of the defeated army said loudly: "I will support the king's envoy to Hedong, and after he is guaranteed to stay, the king's envoy will reward one person with two bolts of silk. "

No one paid him any attention.The sound of rumbling horseshoes gradually faded away.

"It seems to be Xia thief, not Wang Shijun's soldier." Someone said suddenly.

"Huh? Xia Bandit? Then don't surrender! Go back to Hedong by a small road. If Wang Yao comes, we will surrender him, and then protect him and Xia Bandit! It's not up to outsiders to make decisions in the four prefectures in Hezhong."

"Extremely. Most of the brothers are actually broken up. If you gather them together, there are still enough people."

"What kind of bullshit did Wang Ke fight! He was so confused that he lost without even seeing Bandit Xia's face."

"Chong'er doesn't know how to fight, so he can't be the master."

The broken soldiers chattered and helped each other away.

Meng Zhixiang urged his horse and arrived in Baoding County within a day.In the evening of the next day, they chased to Xinyidian again.

On the way, a few broken soldiers were caught and tortured, and they learned that Wang Ke had left camp and set off the day before, and rushed back to Puzhou.

After all, CityInn is only 35 miles away from Hezhong City, which is within a short distance.

The total mileage from the city in the river to the banks of Fenshui, where the two sides are fighting, does not exceed 180 miles. It is really difficult to catch up if you run with all your heart.

"These bastards are running really fast!" Meng Zhixiang sighed, calling the soldiers to go back, and retreating the enemy's rout along the way.Since Wang Ke can't be caught, then weaken his strength and cut off his minions.

Hezhong yamen soldiers can catch as many as they can, but they can't be allowed to return to Hezhong City safely.

……

In Hezhong City, the atmosphere was serious, even tense.

Thirty thousand troops went out and less than three thousand came back.Although there will be some routs running back one after another, a disastrous defeat is already a high probability.

Wang Ke's prestige, which was already very weak, fell all the way to zero after being hit by this fatal blow.

"Husband, why worry?" His wife, Li Shi, sat quietly beside Wang Ke and said, "My concubine has already written a letter to my grandfather asking for help. As long as we guard Hedong County well, there may not be no chance of turning around."

"Where did father-in-law's reinforcements go? Why hasn't there been any movement yet?" Wang Ke said anxiously: "If it came later, I'm afraid I would have to collect the corpse."

Mrs. Li looked at her husband quietly, and sighed: "Husband, what's the point of lamenting? I heard that Shao Shude is not a bloodthirsty person, and he is very generous to his nephew and younger generations. Even if the city in the river is broken, what can we do?" ? If the husband does not want to go back to Jinyang with the concubine, the concubine will accompany the husband into the court."

"Entering the court?" Wang Ke was taken aback for a moment, but said nothing.

This—seemed to be the way out.

For those who failed in the annexation war of feudal towns and internal power struggles, the court never refused when they asked to join the court.

Entering the court as a prime minister, the prime minister with real power must not even think about it, but it seems not bad to get a noble position.

Shi Zan has entered the court, and Li Kuangwei is about to enter the court. Is it possible that I, Wang Ke, will become the third important figure in the feudal town to enter the court in recent years?
"Husband." Li sat a little closer, and said in a low voice: "Now we need to reward the soldiers and generals generously, and the sergeants who ran back with the husband should also be rewarded more. The situation is critical, and the old government soldiers in the city have ulterior motives. , Maybe one day I will tie up my husband and throw him out to contribute. My husband must have someone of his own, and those who have gone through adversity together are the most suitable for promotion and appointment."

"This..." Wang Ke hesitated, and said: "If only these people are rewarded, will the other sergeants be dissatisfied and make trouble? Not appropriate."

Seeing that her suggestion was not adopted, Mrs. Li was so angry that she put the teapot on the desk and stopped talking.

Wang Ke looked at his wife with a slight twinkle in his eyes.Perhaps, there is another way to save the crisis?
(End of this chapter)