The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 976

In the early morning, the sky was just dawning, and thick fog enveloped the field. The milky white mist was like layers of veils falling from the sky, making the sky and earth a vast expanse of whiteness, and the forests, villages and river beds in the distance were all covered by veils; After a long time, the thick clouds in the eastern sky gave birth to gorgeous colors, and the colorful morning glow is about to break out at dawn.

The morning glow that pierced through the thick clouds shone on the mountains and forests in the distance, as if dyed with a layer of magnificent colors. A few miles away, a rushing river shimmered like a jade belt around the forest. This is the Anju Water in Ziyang.

In a wilderness about five miles east of the east bank of Anju River, stands a huge military camp covering an area of ​​hundreds of acres. The military camp is built with board walls, about ten feet five feet high, solid and solid.The battle flags fluttered over the barracks, and the flags fluttered, and the three-foot-high "Sui" battle flag fluttered over the Chinese army.

The tents in the barracks were lined up neatly, and the white tents were particularly dazzling under the morning glow.On the left and right of the camp gate, there is a huge sentry tower with a height of three feet. A team of sentries patrols the tower in turn, watching the surrounding situation vigilantly all the time.

After a while, a cavalry rushed from the camp to the gate of the camp. The leader was Xue Wanjun, the commander of the Sixth Army, General Youwuwei, and Duke of Fujikuni.

"How is the ship ready?" Xue Wanjun asked as he boarded the sentry tower.

There is a large drop between the river bed of Anjushui and the ground, and it is a pity that it is suitable for the army to cross the river. Now the ferry that can provide Xue Wanjun to cross the river is the ferry in front of him. There is a man-made stone step on both sides of the river extending to the riverside pier. The width is not much different, about five feet, but Zhang Shigui built a tight fortification on the stone steps on the opposite bank, and sent troops to occupy other relatively flat places. It is invincible, but once it enters the water, it is a landlubber.Of course, the navy of the Tenth Army can also turn around from Mianshui and return to the Yangtze River, then go north from Berkshire to Fushui, and then go north from Fuling Shijing County to Anjushui, but after going in a big circle, I am afraid that the puppet Tang Dynasty will be wiped out , so instead of doing such time-consuming and thankless things, it is better to leave this war to other armies to fight.

But these two are obviously not the results Xue Wanjun wants, and the only way is to cross the Anju River by force.

"Report to the general!" Dugu Yanyun, who was in charge of raising ships, said, "The last general has raised more than a hundred ships, but these are all fishing boats and passenger ships for ferrying. These ships are small, and our soldiers are not used to them. In a water battle, you can’t even stand on small boats, so it’s probably unrealistic to break through the ferry with these small boats. It’s a pity that we don’t have big ships such as the five-toothed warship, otherwise, we can let the crossbowmen condescend to suppress the other side.”

Xue Wanjun nodded. In the past few days, he had tried many ways to cross the river, but water warfare was not Xue Wanjun's forte. There is no way to grab a position on the opposite bank even if you go into battle.

Of course, in addition to storming and sailing circles, you can also go upstream to cross the river, but in this way, not only the supply line is too long, but also the places you pass are either mountainous areas or densely forested hilly areas, which are easy to be attacked by the enemy. The key to the army's ambush is that time is too late.

"Report to General, this is the information just sent by General Li Zhi." Yu Zhan walked up to the sentry tower at this time and handed a letter to Xue Wanjun.

After reading the contents of the letter, Xue Wanjun said excitedly, "That's great."

"General, why are you so happy?" Dugu Yanyun looked at Xue Wanjun in surprise.

"General Li Zhi and a surprise army wiped out Duan Lun's and Yuan Ren's [-] troops in the area of ​​Niutang, and then captured the camp of Niufang Town." As the commander of the first army, he also joined forces with Yang Guang to fight nearby Xue Wanjun is also one of the few people in this team who knows that Yang Guang and Yang Yichen are still alive, and he is amazed at Yang Guang's very classic siege attack: it is unexpected to launch two ambushes in the same place, but what is even more unexpected is that others They all hid the ambush in places that no one knew, but Yang Guang and Yang Yichen did the opposite, blatantly placing the ambush on the road. How many people would have thought of this?This is no longer the art of war, but has risen to the height of calculating people's hearts and human nature.Xue Wanjun felt that if he was in that environment and state of mind, he would definitely be recruited.

Dugu Yanyun at the side said cheerfully: "The fall of Chemian Town has also made Zhang Shigui a soft-shelled turtle."

"Not bad!" Xue Wanjun nodded, and said in an admiring tone: "Speaking of which, Zhang Shigui is also a very good general. He performed very well when he attacked our Anju camp; No chaos, no water leaks, so that we can't take advantage of the slightest; after retreating to the opposite bank, all the ferries and gentle places along the river have been sealed off, and the geographical advantage has been brought into full play; other aspects are not good yet, But in terms of defense, at least it is better than Li Xiaogong, who was wiped out twice, and Liu Hongji, who died in Jinggu County, Yicheng."

"He is indeed a capable person, but it's a pity that there are too few opportunities to show it." Dugu Yanyun also deeply agreed with Xue Wanjunzhi's words, and he asked: "General, do you think Zhang Shigui will run away?"

"He can't run away, can't run, and dare not run. He still has [-] troops in his hands, so he can last for a while. If he runs away, not only will he be chased by our cavalry, but also the army of Lord Panshi will also be attacked." It's bad luck. So for the sake of the puppet Tang Dynasty Guozuo, he can't run, and he dare not run." Xue Wanjun said with a smile: "Now, as long as the news of Li Zhi's copying the rear reaches Zhang Shigui's army, the army's morale will definitely be shaken and the soldiers will be scattered. , if General Li strikes while the iron is hot and mobilizes some of Zhang Shigui's troops, we will have an opportunity to take advantage of it. But we also need to add a handful of dry wood to Zhang Shigui."

War is like this, as long as there is a gap in the enemy, the original perfect defense line will be destroyed step by step with the continuous tearing of the gap, Zhang Shigui will definitely try to fill the gap, but he is facing Xue Wanjun, "Li Zhang Shigui's army cannot deal with any of the three Sui armies, let alone the current situation where both sides are fighting, one side is supervising, and there are internal forces to make troubles. Zhang Shigui will inevitably Taking care of this and losing sight of another, the defense line gradually collapsed. In the end, the defense line could only be shrunk to resist the Sui army.

"General, please order." All the generals looked solemn, and quickly bowed to accept the order.

"The reason why our army has repeatedly failed in the battle of crossing the river is because the boats are small and unstable, so that our army's combat power and crossbow arrows cannot exert [-]% of their power. In this case, we simply connected these small boats with iron cables and wooden boards. Dozens of twenty small boats are connected to form a big boat that leads to the opposite bank. In this way, the water is not strong enough to make the boat sway, and our soldiers can walk on the water as if walking on the ground.”

Xue Wanjun has been thinking about how to go to the other side for the past few days. It is obviously impossible to strengthen water warfare capabilities, train water troops, and sail around for support, so he can only use other methods. Dugu Yanyun said before, "It's a pity that we don't have "Wuya warship and other big ships" woke him up.

Although I don't have a five-toothed ship, connecting these small boats into a huge pontoon bridge, isn't the problem solved?

"The general is wise!" All the generals bowed and laughed.

"Everyone, go get busy! Try to complete this series of large ships within two days. Our army must hurry up to cross to the other side and defeat Zhang Shigui in one fell swoop. We can't let Li Zhi be the best!" Colleagues belong to colleagues, but Since ancient times, "Wen Wu is the first, Wu Wu is the second", Xue Wanjun is not immune to the custom, he thought for a while, and then ordered: "Lay bamboo boards or mountain rattan boards on top of the wooden boards, in case the Tang army's catapults are thrown into the ground." Throw stones through the ship."

Today, the most indispensable thing in the Sui Dynasty is craftsmen. There are a large number of craftsmen among the top ten legions and other combat corps. With these people accompanying the army, they can often make offensive and defensive equipment on the spot.

Following Xue Wanjun's order, the entire barracks began to get busy. Soldiers went into the mountains to collect bamboo and vines; craftsmen connected the boats together, and then threw wooden boards, bamboo boards or rattan weaving.

……

On the west bank of Anjushui, Zhang Shigui stood on the guard tower of the front battalion with his hands behind his back, staring indifferently at the burning opposite bank. He also saw Xue Wanjun's motives, but is Anjushui so easy to cross?
Looking at the serial boats floating on the water like land, Zhang Shigui couldn't help but sneered, and ordered: "Move all inflammable materials such as kerosene, sulfur, firewood and so on to the catapult position, and then prepare the rockets." If the serial ships of the Sui army came, throw the fire starter and burn them clean."

"Here." The deputy general responded, and hurried down to get ready.

Zhang Zhen who was at the side asked a little puzzled: "Father, isn't it good to throw a boulder over there? Why use fire?"

"The opponent has already laid flexible bamboo and mountain vines. The stone cannon can only hit the wooden layer at most, and will not hurt the ship. Even if it penetrates, it will not sink for a while, and once it gets close to the shore At the same time, the crossbow arrows of the Sui army suppressed us so much that we couldn't lift our heads, and only a big fire can destroy the chain ship in the shortest time without affecting our army." Having said this, Zhang Shigui looked at Xue Li who was beside Zhang Zhen , frowned and said: "Rengui, I am very pleased with your patriotism and devotion to the country. But you are too young, war should not be the place for you to stay, go home with your friends."

"Uncle Shi, I..." Xue Lixin, who was deeply ashamed, said: I have a heart of patriotism and serving the country, but it is not the Tang Dynasty that lives by counting the hours, but I also follow orders from foreign races. The Great Sui Dynasty.

"Go back to me immediately." Zhang Shigui interrupted Xue Li bluntly: "Back then, your father and I studied arts together, and we were like-minded and inseparable. It's not like a brother is better than a brother. It's a pity that your father died young unfortunately. Otherwise, with his literary and military strategy, it is no problem to fight for a wife and a son, and a famous history. Originally, your father is gone, and I, an uncle, should take care of you, but your child has a worse temper than your father Stubborn, I am willing to be poor..."

Zhang Shiguinian looked at Xue Li with extremely complicated eyes. He appreciated his character of liking him to live a poor life and was unwilling to "eat cheap food", but also annoyed him for his inhumanity. He shook his head and sighed: "I can't I feel ashamed to take care of you. How can I let you go to the battlefield at such a young age? If you do something good or bad, how can I have the face to meet your father under Jiuquan in the future? You should go back to Xingle City immediately and put you in Liuzhou. Uncle's family took them to the mountain to take shelter temporarily, and after the war is over, I will decide to preside over the marriage between you and the niece of the Liu family."

"A good man puts his career first! How can he be greedy for women and linger on his children's affair?" Zhang Shigui's last words made Xue Li blush. When his father was alive, he hired a woman from the collateral line of the Hedong Liu family. Now their family is also living in Xingle City.

Zhang Shigui shook his head: "This statement is wrong. I have ruled the world with filial piety since ancient times in the Central Plains. There are three kinds of unfilial piety. The biggest one is not having an offspring. Besides, the sages of Confucius said 'food, sex, and sexuality'. I will wait for a good man to adapt to temperance." But, if you are heartless and heartless, wouldn't you be worse than a beast?"

"Uncle Shi, we will talk about this later." Xue Li's face turned even redder.From Zhang Shigui's attitude, he felt the deep friendship between him and his father, otherwise it would not be possible for him to take care of him, openly or secretly, after his father died for so many years, and gain a lot of convenience for himself and the Liu family through his status.This also made Xue Li's determination to save Shibo from the fire pit countless times stronger.

"This is not important!" Zhang Shigui walked down the sentry tower first, and said as he walked, "In short, do as I said immediately, the battlefield is not where you should come..."

"Brother Rengui, father is busy with military affairs, so let's not bother him." Zhang Zhen gave Xue Li a wink and told him to go down to discuss.

"The uncle is busy first." Xue Li bowed to Zhang Shigui: "My nephew will take my leave first."

At this time, a soldier came to report that Li Yuan, the king of Lujiang, had brought 8000 troops.

When Zhang Shigui heard the news, he was overjoyed immediately, and hurried out of the camp to greet him in person. Since Duan Lun sent away 10,000 soldiers, his defense line has been weakened a lot, but the Sui Army's coach just took 8000 slave soldiers as "human beings." "Ladder", Xue Wanjun, who frightened the 8000+ Tang army to surrender, if "Crazy Xue" let the slave soldiers launch a desperate attack on him, it is estimated that the soldiers will not be able to resist for a long time. At this time, I was overjoyed when I heard that [-] people came. However, when Zhang Shigui saw these [-] people, his heart sank suddenly.

The 8000 troops presented in front of him, no matter how you look at them, looked like they had just escaped from a major defeat. Zhang Shigui stepped forward immediately. When he saw the gauze on Li Yuan's shoulders was still bleeding, he felt even colder. He quickly asked, "Your Highness, what are you?"

"General Zhang, the camp in Chefang Town is over!" Li Yuan said with a mournful face, "Duan Lun led [-] soldiers to wipe out the rebellious people in Niujia, but was ambushed by the other side; Thousands of soldiers went to rescue them, but they were wiped out at the same place. After winning two games in a row, this group of rioters disguised themselves as our army, and blatantly drove into the camp of Chefang Town with the appearance of a victorious army. Then, He killed us again by surprise. If General Li hadn't risked his life to save him, even I would have died among the rebellious army, but even so, I still got hit by two arrows."

"General Zhang, Your Highness is right, that's how things are." Li Daliang on the side nodded sharply, his handsome face flushed red, I don't know, I thought he was depressed, angry, angry, but in fact he was holding back I couldn't bear it.

Although Li Yuan is also a member of the Sui Dynasty, he is not qualified to know the fact that the Niujia rioters are from the Sui army, and he still thinks that a bunch of rioters are causing trouble.Speaking of it, Li Yuan was unlucky enough, he and the [-] soldiers brought from Chengdu were sent away by himself, but this guy was still met by a group of fierce 'disorderly people', if he hadn't led the soldiers in time Arrived, I am afraid that his head has been beheaded.

"What?" Zhang Shigui opened his eyes angrily as if struck by lightning, and shouted angrily, "You have at least 5000 soldiers in your hands, and [-] of them are well-trained veterans. It is also an upright imperial army, how can a group of troubled times kill so badly and so quickly? What are you doing for food?"

"General Zhang doesn't know that there are riots everywhere in Sichuan. Ziyang and Niujia have been occupied by rioters one after another. Even Chengdu County has a group of very powerful rioters. They occupied all four large granaries that Yin Guozhang planned to dedicate to the court. Hundreds of thousands of shi of grain were sent by them to help the victims, and then they took hundreds of thousands of refugees to Qingcheng Mountain to occupy the mountain and become the king. This group of rebellious people is now very powerful, and the threat to the imperial court is greater than that of the Sui army." Speaking of Here, Li Yuan continued: "It is precisely because these grains were robbed by the rioters that the imperial court has no food to adjust. The soldiers in the front had no food to eat, and the morale of the army was in turmoil. Division Duan Lun and Yuan Ren wanted to take the rations of oxen to replenish the army, but after being ambushed, the soldiers who were deeply resentful towards the court stopped fighting and became deserters one after another , when the rebels entered the camp of Chefang Town, so did your original soldiers. Fortunately, the [-] soldiers we brought had just arrived and were not affected by resentment, so they managed to hold their ground. However, the troops we gathered were only That's all that's left."

The pale-faced Zhang Shigui staggered a few steps, and was supported by Zhang Zhen and Xue Li who rushed to him, so he didn't fall to the ground. After a while, he took a deep breath and tried to calm down his chaotic mind. Get down, look to the left and right, and said in a deep voice: "This matter must not be spread to the outside world, just treat it as the reinforcements sent by the imperial court to support Puci, and you call the soldiers to enter the camp first!"

Although Zhang Shigui also knew that it was impossible for these thousands of routs to keep everyone secret, and the soldiers in the battalion also had eyes and could tell the difference between reinforcements and routs, but at this time he had no choice but to say so. I only hope that this "secret" can be kept secret until Xue Wanjun's serial boat is burned down.

"Here!" Following Li Yuan's greeting, thousands of 'Tang Army' who were firmly under the control of the Sui Army left Zhang Shigui's camp in such a blatant manner.

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(End of this chapter)