stubborn thief

Chapter 357 Long Duo Drought
Yang Yao's cavalry charged eastward, not only overturning the Tangtong Department of Yansui Town on the North Road, but also smashing the false appearance of the bulk army of the frontier commanders in the three towns.

The first person to notice the change in the battle situation was Zhang Hongye, the general of Yansui Town.

You Shilu, the highest-ranking officer in Yansui Town, is in poor health and cannot take on the main offensive mission. He can only live in the central army. The highest rank of the front-line leader falls on the shoulders of the general Zhang Hongye.

It is precisely because You Shilu was unable to participate in the war, so the mission of attacking Liu Chengzong's main force was entrusted to the Ningxia Army and the Guyuan Army, and the Yansui Army fought the North Road alone without cooperating with the two armies.

Zhang Hongye's mission in this attack was to cross the river from Beishan Xiaolu and the northern section of Huangshui, and the tactics used were also separate attacks.

Its forces were divided into two groups, one with Tang Tong as the chopping block, led the main soldiers to stop the enemy on the narrow mountain road in the north, and then left the surprise soldiers as a backup.

The other route, Zhang Hongye, was used as a warhammer, and the troops were divided into two groups to cross the river from the west and north sides of the turn of Huangshui, using rafts to complete the encirclement of the enemy troops on the north route before the Tangtong Department was defeated.

But Yang Yao's cavalry was too fast and fierce, without any hesitation, they ignored the main force of Zhang Hongye's troops who were crossing the river, and rushed straight to the narrow area where Tang Tong's troops were located. Then drive straight in.

Not to mention that Zhang Hongye, who was sitting on the cowhide raft, couldn't react, even Fumin, the commander-in-chief of the standard battalion who succeeded Li Fuming's troops who died in the battle, didn't move.

Guan Fumin was not as helpless as Zhang Hongye on the cowhide raft, he was just stunned for a moment, after all, his task should have been assumed by the guerrilla Li Fuming, and his predecessor was hit and killed by the horse camp of the marshal's mansion, so it was his turn.

Now that Ma Ying came charging again aggressively, the officials and people's minds were stopping to face the collision and back away. In this moment of hesitation, the terrifying Yang Yao had already left.

Yang Yao didn't intend to run into him at all, he just swept over the flank of the official headquarters and galloped towards the camp of the frontier army in the three towns.

The back cotton armor of Guan Fumin, who was belatedly aware of it, was already wet with sweat. In a panic, he saw General Zhang Hongye, who had just crossed the Huangshui River, waving his arms on the bank to drive the soldiers who were crossing the river back to help.

Then Zhang Hongye led hundreds of infantry who had already crossed the river, and chased Yang Yao's horseshoe prints from the north bank in a big circle to kill him back.

Guan Fumin once again fell into hesitation. At this moment, should he respond to the two armies of Ningxia and Guyuan, or go back to rescue You Shilu?

No one could tell him the answer, so Zhang Hongye, who was running across the bank, cursed and panicked. .

He was already guilty of a crime, and the enemy broke through his line of defense, so his official position would definitely be lost.

The only chance for him to survive now is to run back and rescue the general soldier You Shilu from the enemy cavalry, so that at least he can save his head.

In order to keep his head, Zhang Hongye led his troops to run wildly to no avail. When he ran along the west bank of Huangshui River to the north bank, and arrived at the mountain path where the Tangtong Department was defeated, only scattered wounded soldiers rescued their unconscious guerrilla generals. The horse team from the Marshal's Mansion had long since gone.

Zhang Hongye didn't care about the ongoing battle on the middle road and south road, gathered dozens of soldiers, left a few people to guard Tang Tong, and ordered Guan Fumin and others to go back to the army for rescue, and then led the infantry brigade with less than a thousand people to rush to the main formation go.

On the other side of the battlefield, the Guyuan Army under Yang Qi's command, who had experienced many hardships, finally "dispelled" the Fanbing. They overturned the chariot and put it in the trench, and soldiers rushed to Tucheng one after another. The whole army was immersed in the joy of defeating the enemy. , and planted the Zongzi flag on the Tucheng under the setting sun.

Yang Qi, who led more than a thousand soldiers into the city, was bewildered. Watching the sunset, the six thousand-man teams of the hunting battalion were retreating alternately to get rid of the pursuit. He ordered the pursuers to stop chasing after driving the enemy ten miles away.

In the bottom of his heart, Yang Qi agreed with He Huchen's words very much. Liu Chengzong, who was born in Yansui, was a formidable opponent.

This battle was much easier than Yang Qi had expected. The two sides had different grasps and perceptions of the situation on the battlefield. He didn't think there was anything strange about the retreat of the Marshal's army.

It was nothing more than Liu Chengzong guessed that they were going to use smallpox as a weapon, so the two evils fought each other and gave up the position of the walled city to avoid fighting... It's very cunning.

Although the strategic goal was not achieved, Yang Qi was quite satisfied with the results of the battle. He captured the fortifications and moats, and there was reinforcements from Lintao Town to the west. When Gansu Town and the chieftain army wiped out Liu Chengzong's flank troops in Yongdeng Liancheng, the encirclement was just around the corner.

The Ningxia army who came across the river came late, but they seemed overly cautious. They searched repeatedly in unmanned trenches and dug three feet everywhere in the city.

It was not until he was convinced that there were no people hiding in the trenches, that there were no mines buried in the city, and that he would not be sent to the sky by gunpowder, that He Huchen climbed to the top of the city with a sigh of relief... until he climbed the city wall, his mind was still dizzy. up?

Just when he was wondering, his son He Zan ran over quickly and said, "Father, the North Road has retreated."

Yang Qi and He Huchen were taken aback when they heard the words. Their attack was so smooth that they never imagined that the Yansui Town frontier army would retreat on their own, and rushed to the north of the city to investigate.

It wasn't until then that they realized that the North Road's attack at the foot of the mountain had been thwarted. They could easily see the wounded soldiers and corpses left by Zhang Hongye, but it was already dark and they couldn't see what was going on to the east.

"How is this going?"

The two looked at each other, but neither could tell why.

During the attack just now, He Huchen led the army to cross the river wholeheartedly, while Yang Qi faced the artillery fire from the Marshal's Mansion. Neither of them cared about observing the situation in the northernmost part of the valley. Something happened.

He Huchen called the general who had just crossed the river on the right wing, and after some inquiring, he found out that the horse soldiers from the Marshal's Mansion had broken through from the north road, and the two generals said in their hearts: No good!

At this time, all the troops from the three towns were out, and the troops left behind in the camp were extremely scarce. There were only more than a thousand Taozhou local soldiers led by You Shilu's servant in Yansui Town and He Renlong in Shaanxi Qianshi.

Both Yang Qi and He Huchen had seen Liu Chengzong's menacing horse battalion, and that army could not be stopped by Taozhou native soldiers.

In this way, a difficult question was put in front of the two: to save or not to save?
Yang Qi licked his dry lips, looked around the Tucheng, there were more than a thousand soldiers of the Guyuan Army attacking the front line just now.

The earth city was clean, and the wounded soldiers couldn't find a piece of clean cotton cloth to bandage their wounds. People could only take off their leggings and wrap their wounds hastily, leaning against the edge of the earth wall to rest.

Yang Qi simply looked around, and said to He Huchen: "Marshal He, you can't stay in this city overnight, in my opinion, we still have to go back to rescue You Shuai."

In fact, to Yang Qi, saving You Shilu is just a nice way of saying... It doesn't matter whether you save You Shilu or not, the important thing is that Liu Chengzong didn't prepare dinner for them in this earth city.

Both Ningxia soldiers and Guyuan soldiers had been hungry for a day. They were not prepared to capture Tucheng today and had to go back to the camp for dinner.

He Huchen also meant the same thing, he nodded and said: "Then Yang Shuai will go first, wait for me to collect the gunpowder and blow a hole in the east of the city before leaving."

But I heard Yang Qi say: "I'm still here. I have more than two thousand people chasing the enemy in the west. Wait for them...to catch them?"

Only halfway through the words, Yang Qi stared blankly at the east, and He Huchen followed his gaze, and saw in the distance under the light blue sky, the fire illuminated the mountain platform, and white smoke shot up into the sky from the valley. rise.

At the same time, a cavalry soldier rushed from the east in a hurry, and the horse's hoof stepped on the bank of the Huangshui River for more than ten steps. The rider on the horse finally made up his mind, rode the horse into the river, swam over with the horse's tail, and let go of the reins. He stumbled to the bottom of the city and shouted: "Yang Shuai, He Shuai, please send troops to the east to rescue the troops. The enemy cavalry trampled on the camp, and General Zhang was killed when he came back to help!"

"Zhang Hongye is dead?"

He Huchen cried out in surprise at the top of the city, holding on to the mound of dirt, he realized that the person who had just swam over was Fumin, Chief Yansuiqian, and hurriedly asked him to go to the city, and only after he asked him did he know what the battle was about.

Zhang Hongye never ran to Daying. He was eager to return for help, and ran from the north bank of Huangshui River to the south bank. He wanted to return quickly through the horse path left between the trenches, but unexpectedly, Han Shiyou's horse team was cut off, and he turned his horse and rushed them down. moat.

Then he was blocked in the trench like a whack-a-mole. The trench facing the east to prevent the enemy from riding horses has now become a thing to prevent the infantry from forming an formation. Instead, he asked Han Shiyou to lead the horse and shoot along the edge of the trench. Running around.

From time to time, several riders with spears, waist knives and bows and arrows rushed into the trench, and rushed to the bottom along the zigzag ditch.

When Zhang Hongye was leading the army in the trench, he had just turned a corner with a few servants, but the enemy cavalry pierced through the helmet with a spear, and he was gone without even a chance to come back.

At this moment, someone from the west also rushed back to bring back the news that Yang Qi's pursuers were surrounded by Mongolian cavalry and asked for help.

This is great, the commanders of the two towns were dumbfounded.

They are all people who have been in the army for 20 years. When their subordinates report the known information, they have a picture of the battlefield situation in their minds. As the information increases, the situation of the enemy and ourselves becomes clearer in their minds.

It's just that being clear is sometimes not a good thing. The clearer you are, the more pessimistic the two of you will be about the status quo.

Their purpose changed from going back to Daying for dinner tonight to not being able to eat tonight, and then to not knowing whether they would be able to eat tomorrow.

The large battalion in the east needs to be rescued, and the [-] troops in the west also need to be rescued, but the problem is how to rescue them?
He Huchen went to rescue the battalion, Yang Qi went to rescue the pursuers, the two thought it was probably a situation where one dies and one gets away.

But if you don't save him, if you squat in the earthen castle and starve for a night, you will lose both ways and catch the turtle in the urn.

"Save all the way." Yang Qi's eyes widened, but he couldn't make up his mind: "Which way to save, He Shuai makes up his mind!"

Yang Qi couldn't make up his mind, if he said to save his own soldiers, it would mean that he gave the order not to save You Shilu; if he said to save You Shilu, his remaining soldiers would be very chilled.

It's better to let He Huchen say to save You Shilu, at least Yang Qi can have an excuse to explain to his soldiers.

Unexpectedly, He Huchen frowned and said, "Save Xilu!"

After the servants ran down to the city to deliver the assembly order, Yang Qi asked He Huchen, "Why save Xilu?"

He Huchen shook his head, without explaining to Yang Qi.

He didn't know how to explain it, should he tell Yang Qi that he was just taking a gamble?
What He Huchen was thinking in his mind was not the current small battlefield, but the entire Hehuang battlefield. He believed that this was the most critical moment for the officers and soldiers in this battle, which would determine their victory or defeat.

It's just that He Huchen didn't know what choice to win, he only knew that Xiang Dong would definitely lose.

Their going east means retreating, losing more than [-] troops and retreating, without ditches, camps, and possibly food and supplies.

The most important thing is that even if they head east at this time, they may not be able to save You Shilu.

The leading general beside You Shilu is He Renlong, the old officer of Liu Chengzong.

Although He Renlong really wanted to run out and contribute to the court, the commanders of the three towns all had the idea of ​​avoiding suspicion, so He Renlong was there when digging the pit, but he was not when sending troops, so he was allowed to guard the camp.

Unexpectedly, it was a fast break and fast retreat with a lot of thunder and rain, but it turned out like this after being broken by the cavalry on the North Road.

He Huchen didn't know whether He Renlong would lead Taozhou native soldiers to resist firmly, but even if they resisted firmly, the camp was already on fire, retreating would be a failure, and the two thousand besieged Guyuan soldiers in Hexi would definitely be gone.

So He Huchen's idea is to save the west side. Naturally, they save the east side, which may not be able to keep You Shilu, but on the other hand, if they don't save it, You Shilu may not die, he can run east.

There is smallpox in the eastern estuary. Although You Shilu's physical condition is infected with smallpox and it is impossible for a god to save him, at least it is much better than being directly hit to death by horse soldiers.

The second is the Lintao Army. Calculating the time, the Lintao Army should have completed the encirclement yesterday.

They can still save 1 troops now, and there are still [-] troops in the two towns. Instead of sitting and waiting to die, He Huchen thought it would be better to give it a go. The worst result would be a night battle and melee.

Night battles are fatal to everyone, and the team organization of the frontier soldiers in the melee is always better than those under Liu Chengzong; although they can't eat enough, He Huchen knows that the fans don't eat fish, they are all blind, and whoever is afraid of the blind fights ah?
The most important thing is to fight a battle to solve the food problem.

The situation faced by the two commander-in-chiefs had no room for maneuver. After a little reorganization, they scattered the troops into the rural dwellings to the west of Tubao to collect wood. , Ningxia soldiers demolished houses very efficiently.

The soldiers were very excited. This was not the first time they had demolished a house, but this was the only time in their lifetime that they blatantly demolished the beams of Sufanwangzhuang.

The artillery from the west was booming, and the sergeants of the two towns prepared for a moment, then spread out the general formation in the Hehuang Valley, pressing towards the west with open fire.

On the roof of a residential house ten miles away from the earth castle, Liu Chengzong was holding a binoculars, bent down to take the pancakes handed over by the guards, and just took a bite when he saw a bright light in the distance, and hurriedly picked up the binoculars to look over.

Under the night, a flickering fire dragon flickered in and out of the river valley, which made Liu Shizi so happy that he almost fell from the house.

He originally thought that there was only one infantry formation, so he dispatched [-] Mongolian cavalry, and he planned to work in three shifts, and he would toss them all night if he said anything.

Unexpectedly, it was already dark, and the officers and soldiers came to deliver the head with torches.

"Ningxia soldiers, believe it or not?" Liu Chengzong stepped on the tiles on the roof and said to Huang Shengxiao in the yard: "Ningxia soldiers like to eat my military rations, let the brothers eat quickly, and set up a brazier array after eating, how interesting is the night battle Ah, a live target!"

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)