Han Hai Tang Ergui

Chapter 677 Finally Became a Loyal Minister

Wu Shouqian came back in a big defeat, he didn't know if he was really seriously injured or came to see Gao Yanchou shamelessly, anyway, he ran back to the back office of his supervisory office and never came out again.

After Gao Yanchou commanded the crossbowmen at the top of the city to shoot back the Zhou soldiers who were chasing after Wu Shouqian's defeated army, he saw the banner of the Shu army at the top of Baidi's city was cut down.

Gao Yanchou had no choice but to order the four gates to be closed and retreat to Kuizhou City.

The city of Kuizhou was built on the hillside, facing the Yangtze River. It is said that there are four gates, but in fact, there are only two south gates that are commonly used to enter and exit.

The one to the southwest is called Xiaonanmen, and the one to the southeast is Yidoumen. It is commonly known as the Great South Gate after Du Fu's famous saying here, "Every time you rely on the Big Dipper to look at the capital".

And outside the South and South Gates, there is a large beach, called Zhutoupu, where business travelers gather on weekdays, and it is the best place to disembark and land.

Gao Yanchou wanted to rely on Zhutoupu's house to fight Zhou's army, but how could Ma Zhaoyuan be fooled by him? The Zhou army's warship lingered in Zhutoupu for a long time, waiting for the southeast wind to rise, and then directly set fire to it.

Most of the houses in Zhutoupu are for commercial use, so they are basically built with wooden boards, branches, etc. On weekdays, the most important thing is to prevent water leakage, and it can't stand the intentional fire.

After a while, the flames rose to the sky and could not be rescued, so Gao Yanchou could only order the Shu army to retreat to the city.

Taking advantage of the Zhutoupu fire, Ma Zhaoyuan personally led a hundred warships to surround the Ningjiang Army Naval Port in the east of Kuizhou City.

And long before Ma Zhaoyuan came to encircle, the nimble Ningjiang army and navy took advantage of the wind and fled to Yunanjian and Wanzhou upstream.

The rest were blocked and lost the ability to leave the port, so they had to abandon the ship and flee ashore, watching the Zhou army blockade the port and completely trapped the warship to death.

Gao Yanchou still had more than [-] men in his hands, after the navy landed, there were still more than [-] people, and Wu Shouqian returned from defeat, and there were still [-] or [-] people.

Therefore, the battleable army in Kuizhou City is close to [-], with complete armor and equipment, and a small cavalry team, which is not completely defenseless.

But Gao Yanchou lost the confidence to compete with the Zhou army. He only wanted to stick to Kuizhou City and force the Zhou army to attack the city.

As long as he stabilizes Kuizhou City for a day, Zhou Jun can't go upstream with confidence.

You must know that after Kuizhou, there were no soldiers in Yun'anjian, Wanzhou, Zhongzhou and other places upstream, and it was not until Fuzhou (Fuling) that there were only [-] soldiers from the Wutai Army.

If Kuizhou City is not guarded, Zhou Shi can easily reach the vicinity of Yuzhou (Chongqing).

Ma Zhaoyuan naturally knew the importance of breaking Kuizhou, so he waited for the Zhutoupu fire to extinguish, and immediately urged the craftsmen to dismantle and move the stone cannons that the Shu army had set up in Baidi City and Baiyan Mountain.

In ancient China, due to the lack of metal parts, the disassembly and installation of trebuchets was very difficult.

Most of the time, these trebuchets were basically burned on the spot after the battle, and very few of them could be dismantled and reused.

However, Zhou Jun has this ability. Playing trebuchets can be said to be the inheritance of Zhou Jun. From small camel whirlwind cannons to large counterweight trebuchets, there are several large rooms in the Ministry of War.

Every time troops are sent out, craftsmen from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry must accompany the army, so Zhou Jun quickly dismantled two trebuchets of the Shu army and began to install them in Zhutoupu.

When Gao Yanchou saw it from the city, he just felt his soul fly away. It would only be a matter of time before these large catapults were installed and the weak parts of the city wall of Kuizhou would be blown down.

Luo Ji, the Jiedu judge, said to Gao Yanchou: "The former supervisor attacked and returned after being defeated. Baidi City was quickly captured again, and the people in the city are already in panic.

If the northern soldiers are allowed to throw stones to attack the city, the army's morale may be scattered. Why not take advantage of the time when the soldiers still dare to use their lives, and raise the three armies to fight to the death? "

The most difficult thing to defend a city is not the enemy army, but the hearts of the people.

As Luo Ji said, the Ningjiang army was defeated one after another. With the spirit of the tooth soldiers at this time, it is still possible to go out of the city for a battle.

Of course, if the battle outside the city fails, these tooth soldiers will turn back faster, but it is better than sitting and waiting to die.

Gao Yanchou had no other choice, he had no choice but to gather all the generals of the Ningjiang Army to reward the troops from the Kuizhou treasury. Ready to fight out of town.

Kuizhou is the throat of the Sichuan River, and it has always been the key point for all dynasties to collect taxes on the Yangtze River. During the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the commercial tax of Kuizhou tax customs was even higher than that of Chengdu. Although it is not so exaggerated now, it is still quite a lot. .

Therefore, under Gao Yanchou's reward, the Ningjiang army's thousands of infantry soldiers were divided into different groups, and their morale suddenly rose.

Ma Zhaoyuan was on the warship, so naturally he couldn't see the movement of Kuizhou City, which was built on the mountain and was far higher than the ship, but he knew that he must keep these catapults that had been assembled with great difficulty.

So he simply ordered Shi Yanchao and Lin Renzhao to lead [-] soldiers and horses to protect them, and sent thousands of soldiers and horses to go up the Yangtze River to capture Yun'anjian and Wanzhou and other counties in Mengshu.

Gao Yanchou gave the soldiers a full meal in the city, and then at the beginning of Maoshi, he mobilized [-] Ningjiang army teeth soldiers, [-] guest soldiers Yun'an Jianma infantry, and [-] Xiaorui troops brought by Wu Shouqian from Chengdu. There are thousands of men and women, more than ten thousand in total, they set up the Jiedu Yamen flag and banner, and came out with loud gongs and drums.

This was really slightly beyond Ma Zhaoyuan's expectations. He originally thought that the Shu army would wait for him to set up the trebuchet and the bombardment could not stand it before they would come out to fight desperately, but he did not expect to be so stubborn.

The humming conch horn blew, and Mengshu was not close to the sea like Hedong, so Zhou Jun often used conch horns to distinguish military horns.

When Ma Zhaoyuan entered Shu this time, he brought a total of 500 Pingshu water, land and horse infantry. After entering Shu, 500 people were left in Wushan Army Village, and [-] people were left inside and outside Baidi City.

Wen Chongle led more than a hundred warships, and more than three thousand soldiers had already sailed upstream, and the rest of the warships had to be guarded, and Ma Zhaoyuan could use only ten thousand men in the end.

It's just that he has 1 people, which is not comparable to Gao Yanchou's Ningjiang Army, which has only [-] people.

Ma Zhaoyuan is the elite of the Zhou army. There are more than [-] of the pro-army and the forbidden army. The rest of the left and right guards of Jiangling and the left guard of Yiling are all warriors he selected in Hubei province. Some, the combat effectiveness is not bad.

Moreover, the poor equipment is aimed at Zhou's pro-army and forbidden army. Compared with the Shu army, the equipment of the three guards is basically the same as that of the Shu army.

After the Shu army left the city, they did not stand still in formation. Instead, Gao Yanchou arranged all the crossbowmen of the Ningjiang army to the front row.

And behind the crossbowman, a blade of light flickered, and a large number of spearmen in heavy armor were ready.

Ding Zhuang, who did not belong to the Ningjiang Army, was arranged by Gao Yanchou on the hillside in front of him. Ma Zhaoyuan could vaguely see that those civilian men and Ding Zhuang were holding bows and arrows in their hands.

This is the characteristic of the Shu army. There is a lot of bamboo and wood in Shu, which is suitable for making bows and crossbows. Therefore, the ratio of bows and crossbows in the Shu army has always been high, and it has been like this since the time of Zhuge Wuhou.

Even at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the army in central Shu was still accustomed to being equipped with a large number of crossbows. The famous crossbow general who was miserably abused by the Ming court, who was still in his seventies, had to roll his armor and tend to put out fires everywhere, and was finally killed by Li Dingguo. Zhang Ling is a typical example.

Ma Zhaoyuan saw it clearly on the boat, and couldn't help saying to the left and right: "A certain family thought Gao Yanchou was an idiot, thinking that he was going to mix Ding Zhuang and Ya Bing to make a strong presence, but he didn't expect him to use the advantage of the location to let Ding Zhuang threw our troops on the hillside."

Du Lun Chixin interjected: "Kuizhou is located at the intersection of Wushan Mountain and Daba Mountain. The people rely on the mountains to eat the mountains and the water. It has been an excellent place to recruit naval forces in all dynasties.

And since those young men were armed with bows and arrows, they were presumably hunters in Wushan and Daba Mountains, and many of them should be good at archery.

The sage has ordered the general manager to build a guard here to guard the place, why not recruit them after the battle, and immediately have a strong army! "

Before the battle started, the two had already started to make subsequent arrangements, completely ignoring Gao Yanchou and these thousands of Ningjiang troops.

This confidence comes from the all-round gap between the two countries from the monarch to the generals to the soldiers. Among these three points, Meng Shu can't take advantage of any of them, so it can only bring troubles to the Zhou army, but not danger.

Zhutoupu is not wide, and there can be more than [-] people in total. Gao Yanchou dispatched the whole army, just to use the advantage of numbers to push Zhou Jun into the Yangtze River from top to bottom.

Ma Zhaoyuan didn't panic at all, but ordered Guo Rong to take [-] soldiers to reinforce Lin Renzhao and Shi Yanchao, and then put down a hundred and ten small boats from the big ship to support them.

In the end, Ma Zhaoyuan summoned Hou Renbao, who had a Hedong Xiaoqi brought from the two states of Hedong and Dai in his hands.

"Lead your cavalry to the left side of Zhutoupu. I think that the small south gate must have a lot of merchants coming in and out on weekdays, and the gate is a little slow to close. As soon as the battle starts and the Shu army is frustrated, immediately lead the cavalry to rush in first. In the city, even if you make a great achievement first."

Hou Renbao was overjoyed, to be honest, his position was a bit embarrassing, because his father Hou Yi had taken refuge in the Khitan people.

Moreover, he bet that Zhang Shengren would not be able to defeat the Khitan people based on his feeling, but it turned out to be obvious.

His Hou family can still have officials, except that Hou Renbao was a filial son in Shanzhou and turned against Zhao Kuangzan in time.

It is also because Hou Yi was loyal and brave when he was young, and he was one of the thirteen loyalists of Xingjiao, so Zhang Shengren held his nose and did not pursue Hou Yi's crimes.

Hou Renbao has always hoped to wash away the stain of his father's defection to Khitan, so he takes the lead in every battle and never avoids life and death.

Drums were played, horns burst out, and the Ningjiang army of the Shu Kingdom poured out of the city of Kuizhou shoulder to shoulder.

Every fifteen steps they took, they could hear the big drum beating twice, and the Shu army must have shouted to keep their formation, and at the same time to intimidate the enemy.

Guo Rong held the ceremonial sword bestowed by Zhang Bing and rode his horse galloping in front of the battle. The soldiers of the Zhou army cheered and cheered wherever he went.

Since the Shu army was in the posture of shooting forward with bows and crossbows, and then charging forward in formation, Guo Rong simply faced head-to-head.

Zhao Kuangyin wore a light and thin ring chain armor inside, a silk dress, and a fine steel ring chain armor on the outside, and cotton armor on the outside. Wearing this three-layer armor weighs seven More than ten catties.

It looks cumbersome, but in fact, once the three-layer armor is worn, the opponent will be hit with an ax and a hammer, so don't think about hurting Zhao Kuangyin easily.

Moreover, a majestic warrior like him wears 67 catties of armor, which can fully bear it. There is no great burden, but he cannot run wildly.

Zhao Kuangyin was surrounded by such heavy armored men. They didn't bring bows and arrows, and they put on their armor in the formation with the help of auxiliary soldiers under the cover of their own crossbowmen.

When they put on their armor, they only heard the sound of drums, and the former armies of both sides began to contact, and the crossbowmen of both sides began to shoot crossbow arrows that could quickly harvest human lives.

On the hillside outside Kuizhou City, those young adults roared like apes, and waves of arrows rained down from the hillside.

Although these arrows are not powerful, but with the advantage of terrain, they are quite lethal.

For soldiers in full armor, it is just an itch, but for lightly armored soldiers in the army, the threat is not small.

The Shu army has more crossbows, but less standard crossbows, most of them are bamboo crossbows, which have a fast firing rate, but their armor-piercing power is somewhat insufficient.

Zhou Junsheng is very good at crossbows. Not only does he have a fast-firing monster like a god-arm bow, but he also has a lot of equipment for breaking crossbows.

There are also strong crossbows such as the wooden single crossbow and the Fuyuan crossbow. Often, once the arrow is fired, the opposing Shu army will be turned on their backs.

Of course, there are also powerful big bamboo pole crossbows on the top of the Shu army's walls, which need to be launched with twisting force. Every time a shot is fired, the Zhou army's heavy armor can't stop it. Unfortunately, the number is too small and the rate of fire is too slow. , cannot form a firepower advantage.

The two sides went through seven or eight rounds of brutal and tragic shooting, and almost all the crossbowmen in the front row fell down in large numbers, but the fate of the two sides was very different.

In recent years, Shu Kingdom has not invested as much in equipment as Meng Chang did in building Qionghua Palace, Xuanhua Palace, and Moke Pond.

In the state of Zhou, the construction of Jinshan Palace, Ziwei Palace, and Jinyang Palace were all paid for by Zhang Tie himself, and there was no shortage of imperial court finances that should be allocated to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry.

Therefore, most of the crossbowmen of the Shu army only hung a pair of bamboo armor trimmed into pieces from Nanzhu, repeatedly boiled and then oiled on their chests.

Almost all Zhou Guo crossbowmen have a pair of ring lock armor without armguards, shoulders and shoulders.

Coupled with the difference between the crossbows of the two sides, once the crossbowmen of the Shu army were shot, they would fall into the soul and fall to the ground screaming again and again.

Most of Zhou Jun could not hold back his screams when he was shot, and was dragged behind by the auxiliary soldiers to treat his injuries.

The more the two sides shot at each other, the more panicked the Shu army became. By the seventh round, the front line of the Shu army had sunk in, and the battlefield was full of howling and shouting, and it seemed that they could not hold on.

At this moment, Gao Yanchou led [-] heavy armored personal guards to the scene, and he ordered his generals to hold high the high-character banner of his Ningjiang Army Jiedu envoy and take the lead in the attack.

Seeing that Gao Yanchou went into battle in person, Ning Jiang's army immediately changed from howling to cheering, and regrouped to move forward with all their strength.

Guo Rong also ordered someone to print out his silver-white banner with a big gold background and a black Guo character. This is Zhang Ting's reward to Guo Rong, Murong Nobunaga and others for defeating the Khitan Leather Army by the Hun River for the first time in the past. .

This flag is simply Guo Rong's lifeblood. The surrounding soldiers from Hedong who originally followed Guo Rong and later voted for Zhou State all know Guo Rong's habits.

If the flag is raised, it means that the people are in the flag, and the flag is falling and the people are dead.

Zhao Kuangyin was not far from Guo Rong's side, and he looked at Guo Rong's recognition flag with extreme envy.

Da Zhou belonged to Jin De and was white. This kind of banner with silver and white edges and gold background is a symbol of power. It is at least the town commander who guards one or two mansions. Zhao Kuangyin's real name is envious, and he really wants it.

Thinking of this, Zhao Kuangyin let out a wild roar, and slammed the crossbowman in front of him, and the heavy armored soldier in triple armor rushed out along with him.

Beside Zhao Kuangyin, a red-faced strong man from Qingtang let out an angry roar, holding up a large shield covered with iron, and immediately knocked a gap in the opposing Shu army's spear array.

Of course, the strong man was also bloody from the legs stabbed by the spears of the Shu army. After hitting in, countless swords, guns, swords and halberds greeted the strong man. I don't know if he can still survive.

However, the gap he broke through immediately became Zhou Jun's key attack target. Guo Rong also discovered it, and quickly commanded the generals around him to rush to that place.

Other places were still stabbing each other with spears, but this side had turned into the most tragic hand-to-hand combat, because Gao Yanchou's [-] armored soldiers happened to be coming in this direction.

Zhao Kuangyin only felt force all over his body, and he knew that it was the thrust produced by the enemy's weapons beckoning to him.

But at this moment, he was no longer able to distinguish which ones were fatal blows and which ones were just scratching the surface.

The red-faced man in Qingtang who was the first to break through the long spear formation of the Shu army died in battle. Around his body, the Shu army lay in a circle.

This strong man in three layers of armor was tripped by the Shu army and lifted his neck, and killed him from the neck with a dagger.

Zhao Kuangyin became even more angry, he whistled three times, and suddenly felt that the wrought copper scorpion in his hand had never been as handy as it is now.

This is no longer a big gall, but a hand that suddenly grew out of him.

A heavy armored soldier of the Shu army came, and Zhao Kuangyin stabbed continuously with both hands, each blow accurately hit the face armor of the heavy armored soldier of the Shu army.

At the third poke, there was the sound of the nasal bone breaking, and an unknown liquid burst out from the gap in the visor of the heavy armored soldier of the Shu army.

He was crushed by Zhao Kuangyin's nose bridge, and his deformed visor directly squeezed his eyes out of the eye sockets.

Another heavy armored soldier came, and Zhao Kuangyin changed his poke into a sweep, and directly swept the heavy armored soldier's thigh.

Zhao Kuangyin keenly noticed that he was not wearing suspenders. Under the heavy blow, his leg was broken, and the heavy armor soldier fell to the ground screaming, and was trampled by countless legs in an instant.

Just at this time, Xiao generals Bai Chongzan, Wang Yan, and Hou Zhang also came to reinforce. The Shu army could not resist, and the gap was getting bigger and bigger, which could not be filled by Gao Yanchou's three hundred soldiers.

Even though Gao Yanchou also held Guduo and suffered nine wounds, he still couldn't stop the defeat of the Shu army.

The house leak happened to be raining overnight, Hou Renbao saw the opportunity, and led 300 cavalry from Zhutou Puzuo to attack the Xiaonan Gate. The gatekeeper Ding Zhuang couldn't resist, and Hou Renbao's [-] men broke into the city.

The Shu army was in an uproar, and the front could not be maintained even more. Gao Yanchou's relatives robbed Gao Yanchou and retreated into the city in a hurry, while the Zhou army took advantage of the momentum to attack the city, and the Shu army was in chaos.

The battle lasted until noon, Gao Yanchou was forced to a gate tower in the east of the city, with only a few dozen relatives around him, and the Zhou army had all entered the city, and the situation was over.

His confidant Jiedu judge Luo Ji brought a yellow horse from nowhere, and said to Gao Yanchou: "The Zhou army has not yet encircled the east gate, please get on the horse and run back to Chengdu to seek the imperial army, and then plan for the future."

Gao Yanchou had more than ten wounds on his back, his whole body was dripping with blood, he shook his head and replied: "In the past when I entered Guanzhong, I couldn't be loyal to the king's affairs, and now I can't defend Kuizhou. Even if the saint forgives me, how can I face the elders in Shuzhong again?"

Luo Ji then persuaded, "The Central Plains are now stable, and the state of Zhou has the power to unify the world. I heard that the Lord of Zhou is the holy emperor who was born in 500 years. It is better to descend to Zhou and lead the Zhou army to march westward. Although personal morality is deficient, it can preserve righteousness."

Gao Yanchou was silent for a long while, then shook his head decisively and refused, "When I was young, I followed the late emperor from Hedong, and received the kindness of two generations of emperors, how could I bend my knees to make a strong enemy. And more than a hundred members of Gao's family are still in Chengdu, so I can't do that. Things."

Luo Ji had no choice but to stop persuading him, but Gao Yanchou saw that he was surrounded by brothers who had followed him for several years, and couldn't bear them to die with him, so he took off his body and handed it to Luo Ji .

"A certain has been greatly favored by the Meng family, and now he has to die. Although you and others are paid by the Meng family's salary, today's bloody battle is enough to repay it.

In the past in Guanzhong, I knew that the commander of the Zhou army, Ma Zhaoyuan, was magnanimous. If you don't kill loyal people, you can go downstairs and surrender, and you will surely save your life. "

After finishing speaking, Gao Yanchou drove the judge Luo Ji and his relatives down the tower, while he adjusted his clothes on the tower and worshiped westward, and then committed suicide by jumping into the fire in the east tower of Kuizhou.

(End of this chapter)