Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 565 Turning Point
Fan Jushi was hurriedly called out.

The situation was urgent, and he didn't even have time to put on his armor, so he grabbed an epee from the soldiers, rushed out barefoot, with disheveled hair.

There was chaos on the street.

Huaizhou soldiers and Bian Song soldiers fought together, and Huaizhou soldiers were also fighting each other. It seems that not everyone is against each other.

Fan Jushi was wearing single clothes, roared like thunder, and slashed left and right with his epee, killing two people in a row.

"Fix the formation! Form the formation!" Fighting alone will surely lead to death. Fan Jushi sprinted barefoot, blood dripping from his feet, and the soles of his feet were cut, but he didn't notice it and shouted loudly.

More and more people gathered around him.After fighting in the dark for a long time, the Bian soldiers were a little discouraged. At this time, seeing the figure of the general, their morale recovered.

"Fan Jushi is there, shoot him!" Wang Ban yelled on the tower.

"Traitor!" Fan Jushi cursed, fetched his walking bow, and shot it with an arrow.

Wang Ban shrank his head in fright, and the arrow hit the soldiers beside him.

Immediately, he became a little annoyed, and ordered the left and right to shoot with a crossbow, suppressing the arrogance of Fan Jushi and his gang.

More and more Xia soldiers drove into the city.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Flying Dragon Army is not as good as that of the Bian Song soldiers in the city, they are superior in that they have a large number of people and a well-organized formation. They also take advantage of the night raids and the enemy's cannibalism. , The infantry volley, the long spear stabs, the infantry shoots again, and then advances into the wall, the spears stab, and soon the only remaining Bian soldiers are defeated.

Fan Jushi originally had a chance to escape, but he resolutely led 500 people into the inner city and defended against danger.

More than 3000 troops entered the city one after another, and quickly cleaned up the remaining Bian soldiers and Huai soldiers.

"See General Qi Bi." Seeing Qi Bi Zhang entering the city on a horse, Wang Ban immediately stepped forward to salute.

Qi Bizhang glanced at him, sat on the horse without moving, and said, "How many people are there in General Wang?"

"There are still 400 people." Wang Ban replied honestly.

"400 people, that's a lot. Xue Li!" Qi Bizhang shouted.

"The end is here!"

"Good luck." Qi Bizhang praised, and ordered: "You bring 500 people, together with General Wang's troops, and take advantage of the unstable morale of the Bian bandits to storm the inner city. You must take it down for me."

Wang Ban's expression changed suddenly.

"Obey!" Xue Li also knew that if there was a hidden danger in the city during the battle, it would be very fatal.Not only will it restrain their meager troops, but it will also greatly affect morale, so it must be cleared as soon as possible.

"General Wang, it's not too late. Your department is familiar with the inner city, so let you attack the first battle?" Xue Li looked at Wang Ban and said in a consulting tone,

Wang Ban was extremely reluctant in his heart, but the matter had come to this point, there was no other way but to bite the bullet and agree.

After the two left, the shouting and killing sounded again.

Qi Bizhang sat in the state office, waiting for the soldiers to count and seize.

This waited until dawn.

As an important material transfer center, there are more than 3 grains and more than [-] bundles of arrows in Huaizhou City, and all kinds of miscellaneous military equipment are useless.

This is also the reason why the supplies sent by Bianzhou have not had time to be transported to the city via Qinshui not long after the rainy season, otherwise I am afraid that there will be more.

Qi Bizhang estimated based on experience that if Yang Liang led more than a thousand cavalry and four thousand horse-riding infantry to arrive, the whole army would have 9000 men, more than [-] horses and mules, and more than [-] hu of grain and grass, which would be enough for them. It took three months. After all, the food intake of those horse mules was equivalent to [-] infantry soldiers-it was too damn good to eat, and the cavalry was really not something poor people could afford!
Qi Bizhang thought for a while, and sent some more soldiers to guard the warehouse.

Huaizhou Xinde, who knows who is hiding in the city, if someone takes the opportunity to set fire to it, and the King of Lingwu knows it, the credit will be greatly reduced.

There was still fighting in the inner city, Qi Bizhang was impatient, and was planning to supervise (cut) Zhan (people) himself, when Xue Li limped over.

"General Xue has good news?" Qi Bizhang held his breath and sat back.

"Returning to the army, the last general fought in the middle of the night, killed more than three hundred bandits and captured more than a hundred. The bandit general Fan Jushi set himself on fire and died." Xue Li gestured to the back, and several soldiers held a burned head. presented.

Qi Bizhang suddenly stood up, took the head, looked carefully, and said with a smile: "What happened to the captives of the bandits?"

"There were two hundred soldiers from Bozhou in the inner city. They made a riot in the middle of the night and wanted to surrender Fan Jushi, but failed. The general saw his opportunity and sent people to attack fiercely, and finally broke the inner city. In this battle, no less than a thousand people were killed or injured." Xue Li replied.

Qi Bizhang was silent.

If it weren't for some people who didn't want to die with Fan Jushi, they might not be able to take down the inner city, and the casualties would indeed be a bit heavy.

But it doesn't matter, the military has its own pension.

Once in Huaizhou, if the troops led by Yang Liang come again, the situation in Heyang will undergo earth-shaking changes.

The good news has been sent to Heqing overnight, and the commander will receive it soon.

And what they are now facing is likely to be the siege of the desperate Bian army.

……

"Pang Shigu's style of play is almost the same as that of Ding Hui." In Baiyacang City, Chen Cheng was explaining the battlefield situation to Shao Shude and his soldiers and generals again.

Since the personal soldiers have the opportunity to be released to lower-level officers, of course they have to take turns to learn. This kind of lectures combined with the actual battlefield is particularly effective.

"Pang and Ding attacked the cities of Yan, Yun, and Xu. If they couldn't go down at once, they would build fortifications and besiege them. Compared with them, Zhu Zhen had more tricks. An example of the army chasing, annihilating its soldiers, and then destroying the city in one fell swoop." Chen Cheng said: "Pang Shigu dug trenches and advanced, built more than ten forts, built earthen platforms and shot from a high position with a strong crossbow, shaking the morale of our army and forcing the Tiande army to withdraw from the northwest camp. In the next step, the Bian army may move to the south, and the same trick will be repeated, attacking Liaowu by land and water to seize this stronghold."

The Bian army broke through the northwest camp yesterday.

Strictly speaking, it should be Xia Jun who took the initiative to retreat and abandon this place.

Being shot on the head all day long, the morale was too damaged, so Gao Renhou directly ordered to retreat to preserve his strength.

Some of the retreating Tiande Army infantry returned to Baiyacang City, and some entered Heqing County.As for Liaowu, the place is not big, and the troops were enough, not to mention that Heqing County and Baiyacang can send troops to help.

"Pang Shigu's way of fighting, although the loss of personnel is small, but it is protracted and consumes a lot." Chen Cheng continued: "If it weren't for the proximity of the Bian Song states and the convenience of transporting food and grass, I am afraid that they would have been urged to fight quickly .”

Having said that, he paused for a while, and everyone began to discuss with each other.

Shao Shude stopped the crowd with his hand, and said: "Quanzhong has to do his best, and I can only give half of it. However, our army has a good location, and defense is much easier than offense. This battle, before there is no result in other directions, we still have to spend a lot of time." .Zhu Quanzhong dispatched [-] troops, even at the door of his house, the consumption is not a small amount."

If you are not in charge of a family, you don't know how expensive firewood is, and the consumption of a hundred thousand troops is very staggering.In novels and movies, there are 10,000+ or ​​hundreds of thousands of troops, and they go deep into the enemy's territory to fight. It is impossible to do it in reality, especially when the place you occupy is a white field with no foundation.

The Central Plains were destroyed by Huang Chao and Qin Zongquan, mainly Henan Prefecture, Ruzhou, Caizhou, Dengzhou, Tangzhou, Xiangzhou and Heyang. This is their main activity area. The army is the territory of the fleeing Xuanwu army. It is good to have one third left, and in some places there is not even one out of ten.

Zhu Quanzhong fought every year, no matter in history or in this time and space, with hundreds of thousands of troops at every turn, sometimes fighting three or four feudal towns at the same time, and gained a reputation among the people for having relatively light taxes. Come on, the family will run out one day.

"Marshal, there is a military report." Zheng Yong, the tenth personal soldier, walked in.

There was also a civil official who entered the door and handed Chen Cheng a copy of the document.

Shao Shude and Chen Cheng smiled at each other.

"It must be good news." Shao Shude took it apart and read it carefully.

Chen Cheng also quickly finished watching.

"Master, this matter—"

Shao Shude stretched out his hand to stop it, and then started walking with his hands behind his back.

The buzzing in the room stopped instantly, and everyone's eyes turned accordingly.

"The overall situation in Heyang is settled." Shao Shude said with a smile.

"But Pang Shigu is still there." Chen Cheng also laughed.

"He has to go." Shao Shude played with the official letter in his hand, and said: "I can't attack the front for a long time, and the flanks are threatened. If I were Zhu Quanzhong, the headache now is how to clean up the mess in Heyang and minimize losses as much as possible."

"Order—" Shao Shude finally decided to do the micromanagement himself, and he only heard him say: "Take ten thousand people from Hezhong Yamen and ten thousand people from Tutuan Village to Qiziling, and together with the German army, we will attack Zhiguan."

"Give Yeli Yulue an order that the Tielin Army march eastward with [-] steps, under the command of Gao Renhou."

"Send an order to Wang Xie that the Yinshan and Hengshan tribes ride eastward at [-] paces, under the command of Gao Renhou."

"Send an order to Li Tangbin, don't rest anymore, attack the Bian army in front of you, don't steal and play tricks."

"Give an order to Qi Bizhang to stick to Huaizhou, and there must be no mistakes. If you have spare energy, you can attack and copy the Bian army's return route from Jiyuan and Zhiguan. If you have no chance, you should protect yourself."

"Send an order to Liang Zhixia that the five counties of Shaozhou continue to transfer tens of thousands of people from Tutuan Township to gather in Wangwu County."

This is a counterattack across the board.

Since the dispatch of troops in February, the war has been going on for more than three months, and the defense of the city has lasted for more than a month, but it seems to have reached a turning point.

In fact, according to Shao Shude's original intention, the defense of the city should last at least three months, exhausting the energy of the Bian army, and then counterattack across the board. The Bian army has not yet become exhausted, and the time is not ripe.

But the situation in Huaizhou is changing rapidly. If you don't fight back, they will leave.

From another perspective, this is also an opportunity for Pang Shigu.If he was bold and careful, seized the opportunity of Xia Jun coming out of the tortoise shell, and won a few big victories, he might have captured Heqing, pushed back to Shaozhou, and threatened Hezhong.

"On the other hand, send an order to Zhu Shuzong in Lingzhou to recruit [-] new soldiers and transfer them to Shaozhou." After Shao Shude gave these orders, he stopped talking.

In the counterattack, he will no longer micro-manage, and leave it to several generals to play.

He has now begun to imagine the strategic situation of Xia and Bian in the next stage.

The most ideal situation is obviously to seize the area north of the Yellow River and confront the Bian army across the river.If this is the case, it is necessary to consider changes in the surrounding situation.

Li Keyong?Luo Hongxin?Wang Rong?Zhu Xuan?Zhu Jin?Even Yang Xingmi?
It's another grand play, if it's not handled properly, it's possible to be begged by someone as Dong Zhuo.

"Where is Wang Ke?" Shao Shude approached Chen Cheng and asked in a low voice.

He didn't restrict the actions of Wang Ke and his wife, they could go wherever they wanted.According to the news they got last time, they still live in Anyi, and they said that they will return to Jinyang in the near future, and they don't know if they will go or not.

"Marshal, you're still in Anyi." Chen Cheng knew the reason for Shao Shude's question, so he replied immediately.

"Let Wang Ke and his wife go back to Taiyuan, and bring me a letter back." Shao Shude said.

"Trust me to write?" Chen Cheng asked.

"You write."

Li Keyong is the biggest variable now, if he comes back from Youzhou, the situation will be complicated.

(End of this chapter)