Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 698 The Long Road to Retreat

"What's going on?" Wang Yu angrily grabbed an officer's neck and asked angrily.

"Returning to the army, the cavalry army was defeated and lost more than [-] cavalry. General Zhang gathered the scattered soldiers and confronted the bandit army."

"Who defeated it?"

"Ma Zhi, son of the Bandit Army Hall."

"Get lost!" Wang Yu kicked him angrily.

Tingzi Ma Zhi, I heard that more than a thousand people of Xia's army were killed and wounded behind Taigu Pass, so arrogant!

This time, it should be Liang Jiang Zhang Guihou who personally brought someone to kill the heir.

There are more than 2000 people in the hall, among which there are more than a thousand heavy cavalry of Ma Zhi in the hall, and more than a thousand elite infantry fighters, which are the only ones capable of fighting in Zhang Guihou's eyes.

Some troops of the Po Xia Army may be able to fight a dozen, but the whole team is not good, and it will take time to temper.

From this point of view, Zhang Guihou should have asked Po Xia's army to withdraw first with two thousand peasants from the Tutuan, and the halls would stay and fight while retreating, taking charge of ending the rear.

"The infantry presses up and repels the bandit cavalry." Wang Yu ordered: "I will go up in person."

The main force of the army left the Yuanyuan Pass, and was still marching on the mountain road with nine bends and eighteen bends. It was raining lightly, and it was extremely slippery. From time to time, vehicles rolled down the valley, and the overall speed was horribly slow.But the thieves could escape on relatively easy roads. If it weren't for the fast cavalry, the thieves would probably have run away first.

The two armies of Dingyuan and Jinglue had a total of 500 cavalry troops, [-] of them went the other way, and [-] of them marched with the main force. They were defeated by the rebel army in the first confrontation. The morale of the cavalry had fallen, and they could only rely on infantry up.

"Wait a minute." Guan Kairun, an envoy of the Jinglue Army, came over and persuaded: "Commander, let's proceed with prudence. It is to select soldiers to abandon their luggage and move lightly. When they arrive in Dengfeng, they are already physically strong. Declining, unable to fight anymore. Even in good condition, with two or three thousand soldiers, can they beat Tingzidu?"

Wang Yu coughed, and wanted to say that he would definitely kill the bandits, but it's pointless to brag about it, he still had to do it with real swords and guns in battle, there were more than [-] people in the hall, Xia Jun sent the same force An absolute fiasco, no doubt about it.

They can only be crushed to death by the number of people!
More people beat fewer people. If the side with more people is not a peasant army or peasant army with little military skills and experience, and is defeated by one blow, the side with fewer people but elites will often end up exhausted.

The destruction of the right wing of the Changzhi Army in Luoyang has proved this point. The Tianxiong Army in front of others can only be beaten up, and the Tianxiong Army of the martial arts department can fight them.But Tianxiong's soldiers are inferior to those of Changzhi's army. The advantage is that the officers are not afraid of death. At the same time, the total strength of their own troops is far superior to that of Changzhi's army, and the continuous harassment weakens their morale and combat effectiveness.

They have [-] infantry, [-] cavalry, plus [-] Tutuan peasants. If they act cautiously, they will crush the hall to death no matter what, but they must not go up one after another to give away their heads.

"Forget it, let's proceed with caution, let's go out of this mountain road first." Wang Yu sighed: "It would be great if there are some horsemen."

In the past, I always disliked that the Japanese cavalry were too weak in combat power, and they would be beaten violently by the cavalry of various armies in a frontal battle, but now the cavalry of the army was abused by the heavy cavalry of others. If there are light cavalry who adopt loitering tactics, it is very suitable.

Unarmored light cavalry, light armored medium cavalry, heavy armored heavy cavalry, and armored cavalry are really one thing.

Give an order, and the armies still move forward at a leisurely pace, advancing in the direction of Dengfeng.

On the narrow and winding mountain road, the team of more than [-] people stretched for several miles, which looked quite spectacular.

And with their dispatch, Xia Jun's strategic intentions should be obvious.

……

Wei Boqiu and his group set off first for a while.After several days of marching, we finally saw the city wall of Gaocheng County from a distance.

At this time, Wei Boqiu got a good news and a bad news.

The good news is that Gaocheng County is almost a ghost town.The vanguard troops sent by Wei Boqiu occupied the entire city almost effortlessly.

The bad news is that there is almost nothing in the city, and nearly half of the food and grass they carried with the army have been consumed. If they can't replenish food, they can only kill mules and horses to satisfy their hunger. On the one hand, the consumption of beans and other grains is reduced, and on the other hand, some meat supply.

But anyway, the exhausted sergeants finally got a chance to breathe.The road is too difficult to walk, and everyone looks like a mud monkey. Fighting in the rainy season is simply a kind of torture.

In the afternoon, the auxiliary soldiers tore down the door panels of some uninhabited houses, chopped firewood and boiled water for cooking.

The soldiers are silently maintaining their equipment to ensure that the chain will not be lost when the war comes.

"Military envoy, there is a bandit army coming from the north, and there are still ten miles to go." The energetic scouts hurried into the city and reported to Wei Boqiu and Yang Yi.

"How many people are there?" Yang Yi asked first.

"No less than seven thousand, maybe ten thousand. The post road is tortuous, and you can't see it clearly from a distance. The thieves have no cavalry, only a few dozens of ranger scouts."

"Did they find out?" Wei Boqiu asked.

"The brothers who went out together are all back." The scout replied honestly.

It means that no one of us was arrested, but whether the thief knows it or not can't guarantee it.The terrain is so complicated, who knows if they have sent scouts to lurk over.

"Who is the thief?"

"The bandits didn't raise their flags, I don't know. You Paoze tried to capture the bandits' lone ranger. If they succeed, they should be able to torture them out."

Wei Boqiu and Yang Yi looked at each other.

There are so many people, they should be bandits who have returned from Dengfeng. I don't know what their composition is, they are unbearable to fight.

"Military envoy, do you want to attack?" Yang Yi has [-] cavalry under his command, eager to try.

"Five hundred cavalry, I'm afraid there might be insufficient. Where did the thousand men from Zimazhi, the bandit army hall, go? Could it be that they are still in Taigu Pass? Or Dengfeng?" Wei Boqiu wished he could fly to the sky and take a closer look at Liang Jun on the ground. each arrangement.

"If I encounter bandit cavalry, I'll just stop fighting." Yang Yi is still fighting: "If it rains for a few more days, the cavalry will be completely unable to dispatch, and everyone will be rolling in the mud. If you don't take advantage of this opportunity—— "

"If you don't take advantage of this opportunity to force yourself to move around and go out to fight, you wouldn't be reconciled, would you?" Wei Boqiu laughed.

"Military envoy, there are so many bandit soldiers, it's hard to say whether we can fight. Our army is only two thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry. If we are determined to intercept the bandit army, are we sure we can stop it?" Yang Yi said somewhat In a hurry, he asked again.

"You're right." Wei Boqiu called for his own soldiers and asked the soldiers to put out the fire.Lunch is solved with milk powder and water.

Yang Yi watched silently from the side, her face gradually became happy, as if she understood something.

"General Yang!" Wei Boqiu turned his head again, looked at Yang Yi, and said, "It was an adventure to come out of Luokou this time. Fortunately, King Hongfu came here without any mistakes. If you encounter a thief today, how dare you do it again?" Take a risk?"

"Why don't you dare?" Yang Yi laughed.

"That's good!" Wei Boqiu also made up his mind, and said, "After the rest, your troops will take a short detour to the enemy's flanks, and repeatedly attack and harass them. If you encounter a bandit cavalry, don't fight with them, but just harass, understand? ?”

"I obey." Yang Yi said excitedly.

Wei Boqiu smiled, there is still time, there is no need for Gaocheng County to rush to clean up now.Let the sergeants have enough rest before they have the strength to fight.

……

The continuous drizzle finally stopped, Zhao Lin touched the rain on his face, and cursed in a low voice.

The brigade is still marching.They abandoned some unnecessary baggage, just to speed up the march.Seeing that Gaocheng County was far away, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and finally had a place to stay.

"Keep going! Go to Gaocheng County and take a good rest." Zhao Lin sent someone to convey the order, and the morale of the troops was slightly boosted.

"Military envoy, you can't spend the night in Gaocheng County tonight." Liu Qi came up and reminded.

Zhao Lin glanced at him with some dissatisfaction, and said, "Thieves are rampant, do I look like that kind of person who doesn't know what's important?"

Liu Qi Nuonuo was speechless, with a smile on his face, but he had scolded Zhao Lin bloody in his heart.

It's a dog's trick, the king of Liang is really blind when he uses you as an envoy to defeat Xia's army!

The army went forward for a few miles, and suddenly someone came to report: "Military envoy, just now the scouts are sending flags in the mountains, and there are bandits coming!"

Zhao Lin was very surprised, and immediately sent two groups of rangers to investigate the situation.At the same time, it was ordered to stop advancing, and each battalion was ordered to form a team.

The auxiliary soldiers pulled up the carriages, distributed the armor and spears to the sergeants one by one, and then placed the empty carts on both sides of the brigade, with crossbowmen and spearmen lying on the carts.

After everything was rectified, the sound of horseshoes could be heard faintly in the distance.

"What a thief! It's endless, isn't it?" Zhao Lin was furious: "Why doesn't it rain for a few more days? It would be nice if Xia Bandit's cavalry was abolished."

Wang Yanzhang, who was dressed in military uniform, led the horse passing by. Hearing Zhao Lin's words, he secretly spat.This kind of person can also be a commander. Is there no one available for King Liang?Is the Zhao family in Xuzhou so worth wooing?

The caravan began to move forward.

Xia Jun's cavalry also came around from a distance, and rushed to a very close place, still showing no intention of slowing down.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" Liang Jun shot a large number of arrows from the formation, and Xia Jun's cavalry pawn fell to the ground with a groan.

More than a hundred riders rode their horses to the back of the formation and stopped, first put the horses in the soft soil, and then drew out their bows and shot continuously.

Sparse arrows landed in Liang Jun's formation, causing slight casualties.Liang Jun called in a group of infantry archers, and after shooting, Xia Jun's cavalry screamed again and again, and had to flee far away.

Zhao Lin's tense face finally untied a little, and then he laughed nervously: "How can riding a bow compare to a walking bow? Haha! The summer thief is ridiculous! Absurd! There are still four or five miles, we will go But go to the city to rest, I want to see if Xia Bandit dares to attack the city."

Xia thief ignored him.

More than two hundred riders circled to the front and shot arrows with the momentum of galloping horses.This time the shooting range was a little farther, causing certain casualties to Liang Jun.It's a pity that no matter how hard the riding bow is, it is still at a disadvantage in terms of accuracy, range, power, and rate of fire, and it is completely defeated by the infantry bow.The military system of the Liang people was no different from that of the Xia army, and everyone was also required to be able to shoot arrows. Therefore, after the large group of infantry archers fought back, these cavalry had to leave more than [-] corpses and retreat far away.

"Xia Bandit must have the main force of the brigade behind us!" Zhao Lin suddenly realized, and said: "The cavalry attacked and harassed me, slowing down my marching speed. When the main force of their rear catches up, the two sides will attack. It must be so!"

Wang Yanzhang, who had just ridden forward and knocked down several cavalrymen of the Xia army with iron spears, came back, and did not refute.

Liu Qi subconsciously looked to the north.

Du Yanqiu was still drawing his bow and shooting an arrow. After shooting and killing a cavalry pawn of the Xia army who was too close without controlling the distance, he turned his head and said, "If the bandit army comes after them with light clothes, I will wait for you with the baggage." It’s not far away. It’s better to turn around and face the battle. If the real husband dies, he will die. Besides, General Zhang’s hall is still unknown, so it’s not good to just leave.”

Zhao Lin hesitated.

"Military envoy, it's time to apply, why don't you go to Gaocheng County. Find a place to stay first, and then worry about it." Liu Qi also suggested.

The cavalry of the Xia Army were still entangled with them.

Liang Jun's ranger scouts have been compressed to both sides of the chariot formation, completely protected by infantry.In the surrounding field, the cavalry of the Xia army galloped left and right, but there were only a few hundred cavalry, but the momentum was so loud that they almost completely isolated their large infantry.

"Let's go, go to success!" Zhao Lin finally made up his mind, patted the saddle, and said, "Let's go to the city first, stabilize our position, and inquire about the news of the hall. There is still a long way to go to Yangdi, let's rest Only good feet can drive."

Wang Yanzhang did not object.In fact, everything today is in a state of confusion, and it is difficult to make a correct judgment.

Du Yanqiu is everything.He only cared more about the leftover hall, and felt that it would be dishonest to leave, and he felt sorry for others.They are all Paoze who have been with each other for many years, the worst is to die together, what big deal can it be?
Liu Qi volunteered and said: "I would like to lead my troops to be the vanguard, to control the success first, and to support the Chinese army."

"Okay!" Zhao Lin waved his horsewhip, and said, "Liu Shi will lead a thousand elite soldiers from the capital, and he will lead the way first, so there must be no mistakes!"

(End of this chapter)