Han Hai Tang Ergui

Chapter 550

Mengzhuze is a lake that has disappeared in later generations. It is located in the north of today's Shangqiu and south of Shan County and Cao County.

In addition, Mengzhu Ze is also an ancient Daze with the same reputation as Yunmeng Ze. It can be connected to Surabaya in the east and Kaifeng in the west.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the lake of Mengzhuze alone could provide irrigation water for the people of Song Dynasty.

It can be said that Songzhou, the later Shangqiu, became a prosperous place in the Central Plains because of Meng Zhuze.

However, since the Shang Dynasty, the water surface of Mengzhu Lake has been continuously shrinking. By this time, the circumference of the lake has only been forty or fifty miles.

. . . .

Although it is already the beginning of March, this year there was a late spring cold, and the weather was a bit colder than in the deep winter.

The waterway from Xuzhou to Songzhou was only more than [-] miles, but by the time the Southern Tang army reached the vicinity of Mengzhuze, it could be said that they were exhausted.

Because Liu Yanzhen was not prepared for this journey against the current, she relied entirely on her husband's boat.

Due to the high-intensity physical labor and poor food and housing conditions, the more than [-] civilian husbands who came here died of illness, exhaustion, and tens of thousands fled.

Halfway through, that is, when Dangshan was reached, it was actually impossible to go on.

Liu Yanzhen, who had no choice but to let the soldiers carry the armor on their own, went forward.

As soon as this order came out, the soldiers immediately complained. In addition, although Liu Yanzhen had a good reputation, his actual management ability was not good, and his prestige did not go down to the soldiers.

Liu Yanzhen sent people to inspect, and the generals competed to bribe the inspectors, causing a mess in the army.

Noisy, brawls, bullying and other incidents happened from time to time, and the boat moved even slower.

Liu Yanzhen had no choice but to let the soldiers from the prefectures and counties and the Tuanjie Township pull the boats together after seeing that the boats still couldn't move after the order was given to the soldiers to bring their own armor, which barely eased the crisis.

When everyone thought they could relax, they found that without the assistance of state and county soldiers and united township soldiers, the Imperial Army suddenly had more work to do.

Especially along the way, Zhou Guo's cavalry continued to compress the exploration space of the Southern Tang cavalry, and when they saw the opportunity, they rushed up to fight a wave, which made the Southern Tang army extremely exhausted.

Without the help of state and county soldiers and United Township soldiers, the Imperial Army of the Southern Tang Dynasty had no choice but to keep mobilizing and form formations to drive away the Zhou cavalry, which was more tiring than carrying armor.

As for the state and county soldiers and the united township soldiers, they undertook the extremely difficult work of fibering the boats, and had basically lost their combat effectiveness due to heavy physical labor and constant attacks.

On the third day of March, the Southern Tang army, which had been rough and exhausted all the way, finally reached Mengzhuze. Uh..., strictly speaking, only a part of the Southern Tang army reached Mengzhuze.

Because there are more than [-] people from the Southern Tang Army and civilian husbands dispatched this time, it is not an easy task to command so many troops to march.

Not to mention more than [-] strong and strong men and a large amount of food and supplies, even [-] elementary school students on spring outings, without considerable ability, it is easy to make a mess.

For example, now, Liu Yanzhen has arrived in Mengzhuze with 20,000 people, and started to unload the supplies on the boat and set up camp, while Zhang Yanhan, who is in charge of the rear army, is still more than [-] miles away.

What's more troublesome is that due to the exhaustion caused by being attacked along the way, the detection and shielding capabilities of the Southern Tang cavalry were extremely limited.

It's not that these cavalry from Jiangnan are not good at skills. In fact, apart from the fact that the horses are indeed inferior, the cavalry of the Southern Tang Dynasty is actually good at riding, and their shooting skills are even more superb.

But there is a problem. Since ancient times, the knights in the south of the Yangtze River have certain skills, but they lack inheritance, and they lack generals who can train ordinary knights into cavalry.

This is also an important reason why Southern Tang had to offer a lot of benefits to win over Tiger Thorn. Zhang Zhao could only be regarded as a mid-level cavalry general, but in Southern Tang he was an expert in cavalry, and even Hu Wei was rare in Southern Tang. Talents.

However, the tiger thorn had been in the Southern Tang for a short time, and Li Jing did not have unlimited trust, so the Southern Tang cavalry still lacked discipline.

In terms of covering up the army, roaming dog fights, and patrolling and investigating, they basically rely entirely on their personal ability and daily habits.

If you encounter opponents of the same level, you can barely handle it. Historically, you have often been beaten violently when you encounter Hou Tang and Hou Zhou.

Now that they met Zhang Zhou, whose cavalry was fiercer than the Khitans, the cavalry of the Southern Tang Dynasty had basically been compressed into mounted infantry, completely losing the role that cavalry should have.

As soon as Liu Yanzhen arrived at the bank of Mengzhu Lake, before the army settled down, he immediately set up a few tables of wine and meat, invited three or five generals he liked in the barracks, and started drinking and singing by the lake.

Since ancient times, drinking and hunting Mengzhuze has been an elegant event. Celebrities such as Li Bai, Du Fu and Gao Shi all like to hunt here.

As the second generation of Quan, Liu Yanzhen, who grew up with rich clothes and fine food, naturally wanted to go hunting here to show her elegance.

Drinking to the point of euphoria, Liu Yanzhen even ignored the return of the cold spring, and took off her clothes for a few laps by the edge of Mengzhu Lake, which attracted loud applause from the surrounding officials and generals.

As for setting up the camp and going down to the village, everything was left to Cheng Shilang, his confidant.

But Cheng Shilang is just a reckless man who has no courage but no knowledge.

If it was Zhang Zhao's side, it would be the end of being a pro-military general. How could he have the ability to set up a camp and settle all [-] people.

However, even with Cheng Shilang's ability, he was keenly aware that something was wrong, that is, he sent several waves of cavalry out one after another, but none of them came back.

They claimed to have an army of [-], and they brought more than [-] cavalry. When they arrived only [-] miles away from Songzhou City, they couldn't even detect any news about Songzhou City.

At this time, Zhang Quanyue, the governor of Chizhou in the Southern Tang Dynasty, who had been working hard to supervise the work of the boat, also walked in. Before he had time to greet him, he grabbed Cheng Shilang's sleeve and said.

"Hurry up and go to see the deployment with a certain one. The surroundings of Meng Zhuze are as quiet as ghosts, and even the birds and beasts seem to have disappeared. A certain family heard that there were many birds and beasts in Meng Zhuze before. It is really abnormal.

Most of the fertile land in Songzhou is also around Mengzhuze, but there is no farmer, so there must be a fraud, maybe the Zhou army is waiting for us around. "

Cheng Shilang was palpitated by what Zhang Quanyue said. When he followed Liu Yanzhen to do his best, he felt that leading an army was just an easy job.

Only now did Cheng Shilang feel that this was not the case.

The two hurried to the place where Liu Yanzhen was feasting the generals, but it was already too late.

This journey has exhausted Liu Yanzhen, an old man who has been well-clothed and well-fed since he was a child.

After eating and drinking enough, and showing off his muscles, he swam in Mengzhu Lake, and before the sky got dark, he couldn't hold back and went to sleep.

The servants of the Liu family were afraid of Liu Yanzhen's punishment, so they refused to report.

Zhang Quanyue stomped his feet twice, and sighed anxiously.

"It's no wonder that the tiger thorn pretends to be crazy and foolish and is unwilling to follow. Such and such, how can they defeat Zhou Guo's iron cavalry? These tens of thousands of athletes may never return to Jiangnan."

It is true that they could not return to the south of the Yangtze River. As soon as the Southern Tang army passed the Bianshui River section north of Yucheng County, Zhang Zhao retreated to the hidden army south of Shanfu, and immediately dispatched.

Liu Yanzhen had hardly even seen what the Zhou army looked like, but Zhang Zhao had already made a thorough model of the Southern Tang army.

To the north of Yucheng, on the north bank of the Bian River, there is a small town called Tucheng. Zhang Zhao personally led [-] pro-armies and set up an ambush here for a long time.

The reason why the Southern Tang Army only had 70,000 people in total but stretched for dozens of miles was because there was not enough manpower for the fiber boats.

After more than [-] people from the front army arrived at Mengzhuze, more than [-] people behind were still waiting for the trackers in front to come to the boat.

Looking from the Tucheng, Zhang Zhao saw thousands of trackers on the north and south sides of the Bianshui River, being driven back and forth on their boats.

Then the army's boats loaded with a large amount of food and grass were waiting for their arrival in the river.

What is there to wait for?For more than twenty miles, the cavalry can reach it in an instant.

With Zhang Zhao's order, more than ten thousand cavalry including the left and right Habayashi guards attacked from the north.

Bai Congxin, who had been besieging Songzhou City with six thousand riders, also charged from the south of Bianshui.

Zhang Yanhan, who was in command of the rear army of the Southern Tang Dynasty, was not prepared at all, because these days, the Zhou army's cavalry raids were basically based on two or three hundred cavalry, and it was rare to see more than five hundred cavalry.

Therefore, the Southern Tang army also summed up some methods, that is, to use more horses, use strong bows and crossbows, rely on boats in the river as fortresses, and shrink the soldiers to the riverside.

Wherever it is attacked, it will shrink, and then use cavalry to support and contain along the river, waiting for the army to turn around.

But this time, not a few hundred cavalry came, but nearly [-] cavalry, and the smoke and dust on both sides of the Bian River flew out of the sky for a while, which looked particularly terrifying under the setting sun.

Although the Southern Tang army refused horses, it was impossible to cover the entire ten-mile-long team.

Moreover, the cavalry's first attack direction was not the soldiers of the Southern Tang Dynasty who formed formations and followed the boats, but the civilian husbands and state and county soldiers who were forced to continue down the boats.

These people were already exhausted to the extreme, and when they saw the cavalry of the Zhou army rushing over like a storm, whoever took the lead cried and howled, they immediately scattered and fled.

Six or seven thousand civilian husbands and the same number of state and county soldiers collapsed before the Zhou army even arrived, and even the soldiers of the Southern Tang Imperial Army who escorted them to work ran around among the crowd.

At this time, Zhang Yanhan on the boat saw the attacking Zhou army, and quickly ordered people to beat the big drum on the boat as a warning, and the Southern Tang Imperial Army on both sides of the river quickly assembled.

Zhang Yanhan was afraid that the soldiers would not dare to fight the enemy and climbed into the boat, so he ordered the boat to sail away from the shore.

It's just that in this way, the Southern Tang soldiers really couldn't get on the boat, but they didn't know what to do.

Murong Nobunaga's Zuo Yu Linwei was always the first to rush to the battlefield.

The configuration of the left habayashi guards is different from that of the right habayashi guards. The right habayashi guards are more lightly armored hussars, while the left habayashi guards are semi-heavy cavalry with iron armor and horses only in key parts.

This was requested by Zhang Zhao, because he found that the competition between Murong Nobunaga and Li Cunhui had created a gap between the left and right Habayashi guards, and even started to form factions.

This is not possible, so before the Yanshi battle, Zhang Zhao made a large-scale transfer of the officers and configuration of the left and right Habayashi guards, and then designed this kind of combat mode for the two guards to complement each other during the battle.

Therefore, although Murong Nobunaga's left feather forest guard arrived first, they slowed down their speed when they were two hundred paces away, and let the right feather forest guard in light armor go up to harass them first.

You Yu Linwei did not stop and rushed to the sixty paces. The Hou Tang army in front of him was already quite flustered, but he did not collapse. There were even crossbowmen who dared to shoot arrows.

Li Cunhui resolutely gave up the light armor and rushed into the formation, but made a detour in front of the Southern Tang Army's formation, and at the same time poured a large amount of arrow rain on the Southern Tang Army's heads.

These Southern Tang troops were raided when they were on their way, so not many people were wearing armor at all, so the arrows shot by the horse bows were also very lethal to them.

At the same time, the Southern Tang army also started to counterattack. Bows and arrows were fine, but occasionally crossbows and arrows were mixed in, which was still somewhat threatening to the right feather forest guard. Horses or people fell to the ground constantly, causing some confusion.

At this time, Zhang Yanhan on the boat saw the little confusion of the Youyu Linwei, and immediately waved the flag, ordering the Southern Tang cavalry who had been hiding in the infantry formation to attack the Youyu Linwei.

You say he is incapable, but he can see this flaw, you say he is capable, in fact this flaw is false, it is just to lure the Southern Tang cavalry out.

The Nantang infantry made a small opening in the side, and two thousand cavalry rushed out. Li Cunhui immediately directed You Yulinwei to flee even more embarrassingly. '

When he was about a hundred steps away from the Nantang infantry and lost the protection of the infantry, Right Habayashi immediately flicked his tail beautifully and turned the corner.

The cavalry of the Southern Tang Dynasty had much inferior horses, so they were not very close to the right feather forest guard. In addition, they could not imagine that the cavalry of the Zhou army could complete the turn in such a small radius.

Don't underestimate this movement. On the fast gallop with pursuers behind, the whole army is up and down as one, and the horses are commanded like arms. If they say they turn as a whole, they will turn. An ordinary army can't put it out.

Therefore, the Southern Tang cavalry who came in pursuit immediately ran into the right habayashi guard who adjusted his direction.

As soon as they collided, they discovered the power of Zhou Jun's cavalry. Damn, the barrels of these cavalry can breathe fire!

In an instant, the sound was like firecrackers, and the flames shot out. The cavalrymen of the Southern Tang Dynasty turned their backs on their backs, and they didn't care about chasing them. The men and horses were frightened, and they all turned around and ran away. Many people directly collided with themselves.

At this time, Murong Nobunaga's Zuo Yulin guards arrived, most of them were heavy cavalry, under the blow of thunder, the Southern Tang cavalry was cut off at the waist, and immediately ran around in a panic.

Then the hussars of the Right Habayashi Guard put on their sabers and chased and harvested casually.

But in just over a quarter of an hour, the two thousand cavalry of the Imperial Army of the Southern Tang Dynasty were completely defeated!
Li Cunhui led the right feather guards in pursuit, Murong Nobunaga's left feather guards did not pursue, but regrouped, and they tried to charge at the Nantang infantry at a distance of eighty steps.

Murong Nobunaga divided the thousand cavalry into two groups, the first group was [-] cavalry, and the latter group was [-] cavalry.

This time, the infantry, who saw that the cavalry was almost wiped out, became even more flustered. When Zuo Yulinwei was about seventy steps away, they fired their bows and crossbows almost indiscriminately.

By the thirty or forty steps, the bows and crossbows of the Imperial Guards of the Southern Tang Dynasty, especially the crossbow arrows, were almost still being wound.

It turned out that in the panic, this large formation of more than [-] infantry actually shot almost all the crossbows, but although there was smoke and dust everywhere on the opposite side, there were only [-] cavalry, and the hit rate can be imagined.

Zhang Xiaobiao had a short crossbow bolt inserted into his cloth face armor, and he vaguely felt that the blade of the armor had been pierced, because his stomach was warm.

However, he felt that he could hold on. Taking advantage of the smoke and dust, he led his subordinates to run across the Southern Tang formation again, causing the Southern Tang army to shoot another volley of bows and crossbows.

At this point, Xiao Baoren's task was completed, he blew his whistle with all his might, and with the remaining [-] to [-] riders, he followed him and retreated.

The Southern Tang army, who was rejoicing in their hearts, hadn't had time to cheer, and in the smoke and dust that had not yet fallen, eight hundred Zuoyu Lin Xiao cavalry assembled into a pig formation.

The speed of the Liangzhou Zheer horse and the Han blood horse under the crotch accelerated to the fastest speed. Like a thunderbolt, they slammed into the junction of the two battalions of the Southern Tang Army.

There is no temptation, because the temptation is over.

At this time, the Southern Tang army still mainly used wooden single crossbows or rhubarb crossbows from the Han Dynasty, which were powerful but slow to wind.

I just shot away Zhang Xiaobiao and others, and I haven't had time to wind up. At the same time, my physical strength and energy are also consumed in extreme tension.

They didn't even shoot many arrows at the eight hundred cavalry. When the cavalry was about to crash in, the soldiers in front of them collapsed.

They desperately squeezed to both sides, and the soldiers on both sides didn't know what happened, but they were squeezed to one side by their violent comrades.

The formation collapsed in an instant, and apart from running away in fear, many people were defeated in a daze without even seeing the enemy.

For a while, such battles continued to occur on both sides of the Bianshui River. Most of the Southern Tang troops assembled on the riverside relying on large ships collapsed after being repeatedly squeezed three or four times.

In less than an hour, more than [-] Southern Tang troops were attacked by more than [-] Zhou army cavalry, and only a small number of people were left to resist.

Most of the people threw away their weapons and swam desperately to the middle of the river, hoping to get on a boat to save their lives.

It is a pity that although their water properties are generally good, Bian Shui is not wide. 0 The so-called large ships at this time are not the large ships of hundreds or thousands of tons in later generations.

Zhou Jun was on the shore, shooting with bows and crossbows in leisure time, while the Southern Tang Army's corpses were floating in the water, and even the Bian water was quickly dyed red.

Zhang Yanhan was scared out of his wits, and loudly urged Zhou Chuan to turn around and run directly downstream.

It doesn't matter what the outcome is, no matter what has already reached Meng Zhuze's boss and colleagues, it is the most correct to run away by himself.

It's a pity that at this moment camels blew, and Zhang Zhao had already set up the Shenji Battalion on their way of retreat, and more than a hundred small trebuchets were waiting for Zhang Yanhan.

Downstream, the camel whirlwind cannon with corrected shooting parameters, and a small number of medium-sized catapults are ready.

First, the flexible camel whirlwind cannon smashed the operator so much that he dared not come up to steer the boat. As soon as the speed slowed down, the medium-sized trebuchet smashed with precision.

On both sides of the strait, there are archers with divine arms standing by the water's edge and shooting boats. Anyone who dares to show their heads on the boats, only ran less than two miles of water, and the boats in Nantang were broken and the speed dropped.

Zhang Zhao waved his hand, Du Lun Chixin personally led the Zhou army's sailors, tied short weapons to his body, jumped into the small boat naked, rowed to the middle of the river, climbed onto the big Nantang ship with grappling hooks, and fought hand to hand.

After exercising on the Yellow River and Li Jianchong's help in recruiting fishermen and boatmen from the Yellow River, Zhang Zhao finally had more than a thousand talents capable of fighting in water battles.

Du Lun Chixin was the first to climb onto the front of the Southern Tang ship. After he killed a few Southern Tang soldiers who dared to surround him with a hatchet and hammer, a group of people directly cut off the mast.

Throwing the largest ship across the Bian River directly blocked the escape route of the Nantang fleet.

Zhang Zhao was beaming with excitement, these people and ships were very precious to him!

To play the navy, the people from the south are still better at it. Take them captive to the north, and then recruit the fishermen on both sides of the Yellow River. With such a mix and match, with these boats, the future navy will be settled!

"Send a signal so that Wang Shenqi doesn't have to prepare a fireboat, and order the sergeant to shout to surrender and not to kill."

Zhang Zhao issued a series of orders, then looked at Zhao Yanjin beside him and said, "My son is proficient in water warfare, and this Southern Tang navy general will be reviewed by you. Anyone who has a little proficiency in water warfare can be recruited."

However, the Nantang fleet was blocked, but the battle did not end immediately. The search and suppression by ship continued almost until dawn.

Zhang Yanhan, the commander of the Southern Tang Army, was killed during the search. Counting the soldiers and civilian husbands on the boat, a total of [-] Southern Tang troops were almost wiped out.

Only some soldiers with particularly good water skills fled with water, and more than [-] generals above Du Yuhou were captured.

Of the more than [-] boats on Zhang Yanhan's side, only about [-] managed to escape back to the lower reaches of the Bian River, and the rest became Zhang Zhao's spoils of war.

On the boat, there were countless food, grass, and armor, which greatly relieved Zhang Zhao's food shortage.

Now that the rear army has been destroyed, the [-] elites of the Southern Tang Dynasty have been blocked in Mengzhuze, and it is impossible to escape.

(End of this chapter)