Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 380 0375 [How is the morale of the army? 】

At the foot of the mountain in the Western Army Camp, many trenches were dug near the passage by the river.

There are also mounds and wooden fences behind the trench.

Where it is really difficult to excavate, low walls of earth and rocks are also piled up.

On the high mountain on the other side of the river, there have always been rebel sentries who borrowed the general's binoculars to observe the situation.

Whenever the Western Army asked the grain transportation team to move away the food, Yang Zhi would lead the troops out, pretending to be in a decisive battle.

And Liu Yanqing, who tried to lure the rebels down the mountain before, now faced with the rebels coming down the mountain, he didn't have the slightest intention of fighting.Just guarding ditches, fences, earth and stone walls, and cottages for defense, if the rebels attack him, he will fight, and if the rebels do not attack him, he will face off.

The grain transportation team alternated repeatedly, transporting the grain to a small station more than ten miles away, and the peasants came back again to continue carrying.

Yang Zhi didn't dare to force his way through the enemy's line of defense. Firstly, he had fewer troops, and secondly, the morale of the Western Army had improved.

The boost in morale is visible to the naked eye, through a telescope.

The previous Western Army was very disorganized, muddling along lazily.

Now that I heard that the army can be withdrawn, as long as the rebels are blocked, they can go home after the food is transported away. The whole army is full of energy.

If the rebels attack by force at this time, the western army will definitely fight to the death!

Of course, this desperate effort is optional.

Let them hold the line of defense, and the soldiers of the Western Army are naturally willing to work hard. This is fighting for their return home alive.

But let them fight across the defense line, then I'm sorry, I should run or I should run because it's not for myself.

"Forcibly filling up those trenches, we can still get in through the fence," Wang Xiong said.

Yang Zhi had his own thoughts, shaking his head and said: "The gains outweigh the losses, and the soldiers' lives were lost for nothing. You have to fight halfway when the officers and soldiers are retreating. There are no road obstacles to stop them, and the officers and soldiers will not fight desperately when they are in a hurry to return home. It will be good at that time." beated."

Yang Zhi simply ordered the troops to withdraw, let the soldiers recharge their energy and store up energy, and at the same time organized civilian husbands to transport food.

A few days later, the sentry sent back news that the officers and soldiers were abandoning the camp and retreating.

Yang Zhi immediately rushed out with a large army, he only had 2000 people under his command.

As for Liu Yanqing's western army, apart from those who guarded the food road along the way, and those who died or were captured in the previous few battles, there were still more than 3000 people left.

When Yang Zhi led his troops to kill, the main force of the western army had withdrawn for three or four miles, but there were still thousands of archers left.

The rebels filled the first ditch with the rain of arrows, and the archers of the Western Army panicked, shot another round hastily, and then ran away.

Yang Zhi ordered: "Fill in a passage and let the elite chase it first!"

A passage several meters wide was filled in, the wooden fence was pushed down, and wooden boards were used to build the earth and stone walls. Yang Zhiqin led his troops to chase.

It gets narrower as you go forward, and the narrowest place can only accommodate one person.

It was impossible to fight in this terrain, or even to lay an ambush, because the high mountains beside the road were difficult to climb.

After advancing for more than ten miles, I finally reached an open place. There used to be a village here, but now it is empty and no ghosts can be seen.

It is estimated that it once served as a transfer station for the Western Army, and many wooden fences were also set up.The Western Army withdrew so quickly that they didn't even destroy the wooden fences. Yang Zhi repaired them a little and used them as camps.

Yang Zhi had taken this road to seek refuge in Daming Village at the beginning, and he knew the terrain ahead too well.

The road will become narrower and narrower, and eventually become a long plank road.

It's useless to chase after them. The officers and soldiers only need to let a few hundred elites kill them, and they can block the rebels on the plank road.

And it's getting dark, so it's better not to chase them at night.

……

Han Shizhong was at the entrance of the plank road. If the rebels came after him, he immediately retreated to the plank road.

This kind of terrain can only be a long snake.

"Cheer up, don't be like dead parents!"

Han Shizhong was boosting morale, but it was useless to say anything.

Except for Han Shizhong's troops (only a few dozen people left), the rest are all recruits recruited this year.

After the name is broken, he is actually an abandoned son!

It's like a person returning home in the evening, always followed by a hungry wolf, and always has to lose two bones to get away.

Han Shizhong and these soldiers are the bones used to feed wolves.

If it was changed to another terrain, they would have fled in all directions.But this is the Tangluo Road, you have to surrender on the spot, fight after breaking up, or be punished by military law for chasing large troops, there is no other choice.

The military orders they received were to try their best to stop the rebels from pursuing them, at least for five days.

The task is actually very easy to complete, just hold on to the plank road desperately, the difficulty is how to escape after completing the task?

The old soldier in charge of the investigation came back: "Fifth Brother, the bandits didn't come after them, and they camped in that valley."

Han Shizhong asked: "Is the enemy camp heavily guarded?"

The scouting soldier replied: "I can't see clearly. I didn't dare to get too close. I just glanced at it from a distance. The thieves are outside the camp and sent soldiers to patrol, and they are still looking at the mountain road. It may be difficult to rob the camp tonight." "

Hearing this, Han Shizhong immediately gave up his night attack plan.

Even the scouts can't get close, the large army will definitely be spotted in the past, this thief will be really fucking cautious.

Han Shizhong said: "Fire a torch and walk across the plank road in the dark!"

As long as it is not in disrepair, it is not dangerous to cross the plank road at night.

Passing through the hundreds of meters long plank road area, in front is the military rations left by Liu Yanqing.

Moreover, the army rations were sufficient, and he dared not run short, otherwise the 1000-strong army would flee immediately.

Han Shizhong led all his troops through the plank road and acted immediately after dawn.

He first asked the soldiers to pry up the pallet. This operation was relatively easy, and he quickly pried away 30 meters.

Han Shizhong also wanted to pull out the beams, but after a long time, he didn't get a single beam out.

This requires the use of professional tools to knock out the long triangular wooden wedges, and the remaining beams can be kicked off with one kick.

"The thieves are coming!"

Han Shizhong looked up and saw that the rebel army was slowly advancing along the plank road.

"Archer!"

Yang Zhi was also shouting: "Captain!"

One team leader after another moved forward cautiously.The rest of the soldiers stepped on the plank road, grabbed the vines and branches of the cliff and stayed still, and asked the small leaders to move forward and shoot arrows.

The rebel army has not yet formed a special bow and arrow unit, only the squad leaders are equipped with bows and arrows.

The long card player walked in the front carrying the huge shield, followed by twenty or thirty small captains, and the two sides threw arrows at each other across the destroyed plank road.

"Boards, nails, planks are destroyed!"

The long poker player yelled.

This sentence was passed on to the back, and Yang Zhi asked the carpenter to go back to the surrounding area to cut trees.

It must be too late to plan the planks now, so I cut down the arm-thick wood and sawed it into pieces. This thing can be nailed to the trestle beam.

Wood, hammer, and nails were sent to the front.

A small team leader put away his bow and arrow, and said to the long player in front: "Move the shield out."

The team leader got down on the ground, stretched out half of his body, put a piece of wood on the front beam, and then picked up a hammer to smash the nails.Just fix this side of yourself, the other end is too far to reach.

Han Shizhong bent his bow and nocked an arrow and shot towards the team leader.

An arrow hit the head, but it missed the bamboo helmet.

Ordinary bamboo helmets cannot withstand strong bows, but when weaving bamboo helmets, paper tendons are sandwiched between the two layers of bamboo strips.

Let alone bows and arrows, small-caliber bullets can be prevented!
Paper armor's protection against knives, guns, bows, and bullets is actually better than iron armor, and it is extremely light to wear on the body.As long as you don't soak in the water for a long time, it doesn't matter if it rains, it just gets heavier.

The real fatal flaw of paper armor is that it is impatient!

After a few battles, the cardboard armor was basically useless and had to be rebuilt.

If it is a high-intensity war, the paper armor will be beaten beyond recognition after a battle. This thing is purely a consumable.

The huge impact of the arrow still hit the squad leader with a headache.

But it can still be tolerated, the domed structure of the helmet distributes the force on the entire head.

"Archery, archery!"

The long poker player yelled.

The squad leaders in the rear threw their shots towards the opposite side to cover the friendly troops repairing the plank road.

From morning to night, the plank road was only repaired for less than ten meters.

The four people before and after were shot by the Western Army when hammering nails.

Many people were shot at each other, but because of the protection of the armor, only two or three unlucky ones died.

Yang Zhi had already pulled the extra troops back to the small valley, and sent people in turn to build the plank road in front.He didn't rest at night, and continued construction with a torch.

Han Shizhong was so weak that he couldn't dismantle the beam, so he wrapped the beam with firewood and lit it.

Although the wood of the trestle beam has been specially treated, it is corrosion-resistant and fire-resistant, but it will still be broken if it is burned several times.Several plank beams at the entrance of the plank road were destroyed by Han Shizhong.

When the long player saw the situation, he immediately reported to Yang Zhi, and Yang Zhi sent someone to build a long bamboo ladder, and the last section of the plank road directly passed the ladder.

The ladder should be made denser.

It took two days before and after, the distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer, and the difficulty of repairing the plank road was also greatly increased.

The man who hammered the nails not only wore three layers of armor and two layers of helmets, but also protected his face, neck, and hands.As soon as the upper body was stretched out, more than a dozen arrows were shot at in an instant.

When there were only the last ten meters left, the soldiers of the Western Army began to panic.

"Fifth brother, these birdmen want to steal food and escape!"

On the second night, more than a dozen soldiers were brought before Han Shizhong.

The other soldiers were awakened and gathered towards this side one after another.

Han Shizhong originally planned to deal with it by military law, but with the light of the torch, he felt that the atmosphere was a bit wrong.

"Commander Han, let's get out. The superior said to guard for five days, we have already guarded for two days, and we are already worthy of the little food."

"Why can others go first, leaving only us to finish?"

"That's right, they were all born and raised by parents, and our lives are not cheap."

"..."

One soldier after another surrounded him, and Han Shizhong was forced to retreat again and again.

If no decision is made, the army will definitely mutiny, because these are not Han Shizhong's soldiers!

Han Shizhong's serious expression instantly disappeared, and he turned into a hippie smiling face: "I have long wanted to withdraw, but I was afraid that you would not agree. If you have any ideas, don't hide them. If you said it yesterday, you would have already withdrawn yesterday. Have to wait now?"

As soon as this remark came out, the morale of the army was greatly boosted, and the soldiers happily went to carry the grain bags.

Han Shizhong looked at the excited soldiers and sat down alone in a daze. He was getting more and more confused now.

(End of this chapter)