A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 920: Battle of Xiangyi, Zhu brothers fight endlessly

May of the fourth year of Qianfu
Xiangyi is located at the confluence of the Bian River and the Huan River. It has water gates on three sides and only the southeast side is a dry gate, which leads to the official road to Songcheng.

One hundred thousand rebel troops marched forward from the only dry gate in a mighty force, and from a distance they looked like an endless sea.

Chen Daniu, the defender of Xiangyi and the military commander of Xuanren Army, had already received the news. He believed that if they defended for too long, they would lose. Moreover, Xiangyi City was small and they could not play to their own advantages. So they decided to go out of the city and fight the bandits in the field.

May 8
Chen Daniu led five thousand soldiers to advance ten miles to Xiangyi and set up camp. The deputy general Bai Xiaoqiang led one thousand soldiers on the left wing, the right commander Zhang Bao led one thousand soldiers on the right wing, and the left wing commander Chen Dao led one thousand soldiers to garrison Xiangyi.

The last two thousand men were stationed between the camp and Xiangyi by the former commander Wang Yi as the general reserve and also as a surprise force.

According to Chen Daniu's expectation, these two thousand people could cross the Bian River and Huan River at any time and attack the enemy from the opposite bank.

Huang Chao looked at Xuanren's army's deployment and decisively ordered them to retreat twenty miles and set up camp.

Because the closer they got to Xiangyi, the closer the two rivers were to each other, which made it more difficult for him to deploy his army.

After waiting for two days, there was no sign of Xuanren's army taking any action. Fearing that if the situation became dire, they might be attacked from the direction of Bianzhou, they had no choice but to order a strong attack.

He ordered his nephew Huang Cun to lead 20,000 troops from the left camp to cross the Bian River to the north and look for an opportunity to cross the river and attack Xiangyi.

Nephew Lin Yan led the right battalion of 20,000 men to cross the Huan River to the south, with the same mission as Huang Cun.

Huang Kui, a trusted and brave general, led 5,000 men as the vanguard of the army and formed the first line of attack.

Commander Guan Hongfei led 5,000 men as the second formation.

Commander Zhu Cun led 5,000 men as the third formation.

After that there were three more formations, a total of six formations, with 30,000 people.

He personally led 10,000 men from the old camp to support the battle, and his confidant Shang Rang led 30,000 men, young and old, as the rear camp, stationed in the main camp.

He planned to rely on the numerical advantage of the rebel army, fight in six formations in rotation, consume the morale and strength of Xuanren's army, and finally use his own old camp to decide the outcome of the battle.

"Beat the drums! March!"

On a high wooden platform, surrounded by flags of various colors, Huang Chao drew the sword from his waist and pointed it directly at Xuanren's army formation not far away.

Huang Kui, the first in line, saw the yellow flag on the high platform fall down, and he understood clearly what was going on, so he ordered an attack.

He then took the lead, leading five thousand elite soldiers holding various weapons, and rushed towards the Xuanren Army not far away.

Leading the Xuanren Army was Chen Youren, the chief military officer of the front yard, who had a thousand soldiers under his command. They watched the rebels roaring and rushing towards them.

Issue various instructions calmly and calmly.

"Crossbowmen, shoot."

"Attention, front row. Hold your shields tight and stay calm."

"Long hands ready!"

After suffering three rounds of crossbow attacks, the rebels finally approached Xuanren's army formation in fear.

"prick!"

"what!!!"

Xuanren's army used large leather shields to block the fierce surge of the rebels like a dam, and sent out long guns to indiscriminately kill the rebel soldiers who were not wearing armor.

The soldiers mechanically stabbed, retracted, stabbed, and retracted, as if the people before them were straw men on the training ground. Each straight stab was as precise as a long snake, piercing the enemy's open space.

"Put away your guns! Change formation, shieldmen, get ready."

Following Chen Youren's order, some soldiers who could no longer hold their guns dropped their rifles, drew their swords or light weapons, and prepared for battle.

"Open!" Suddenly, the tight shield formation of the government army opened up, and the big shield soldiers stood back to back to open the shield wall. The rebel soldiers suddenly found a small mound of earth behind the enemy's shields.

Before they could react, a group of soldiers as ferocious as wolves and tigers rushed out from behind the shield gate.

Some of them held swords, some held short spears, some held Jinwu, and some were archers holding bows. They could take the life of a rebel with just a wave of their hands.

They worked in groups of three or four as a team, like a comb, and defeated the rebels.

"Defeat, defeat."

Unable to withstand the massacre by Xuanren's army, the rebels ran to the rear, no longer caring about the supervisory team behind them, for fear that the killers behind them would catch up with them.

The whole battle lasted no more than half an hour, and before the rest of the troops could join the battle, the five thousand volunteers attacked the one thousand government troops but were counter-attacked by the enemy, resulting in a great defeat.

Even the 500 soldiers who were in pursuit drove the fleeing soldiers to disperse the second formation of the rebels, killing anyone they saw. When they were about to attack the third formation of the enemy, they heard the sound of their own bugle.

Years of training allowed them to turn around and run without the slightest hesitation, not forgetting to pick up their spoils along the way.

"Brother, I'm sorry, I lost." Huang Gui, who was covered in wounds, knelt in front of Huang Chao and apologized.

Huang Chao sighed, walked up to him, helped him up and comforted him: "I saw it all. The fault is not yours. It's just that the enemy is too elite."

At this time, a young man in armor came here, clasped his fists and said, "Commander-in-chief, the government troops have retreated."

Huang Chao let out a breath, looked at the visitor with a smile and said:

"Very good. If you hadn't discovered it in time, Zhu Lang, and led people to block the hole, the government troops might have rushed to our camp."

"You dare not, kid."

This man's name was Zhu Wen. He was the captain under Huang Chao and the younger brother of Zhu Cun, who was in charge of the third formation. He was known for his bravery and was kept by Huang Chao.

It was he who saw the danger to his side and proposed to gather the elite troops in the third formation to block the fleeing soldiers and prevent the whole line from collapsing.

Huang Chao then selected 3,000 men from the old camp, led by Zhu Wen, to assist his brother Zhu Cun in holding the line to prevent them from being defeated by the enemy, giving Huang Chao enough time to regroup.

Chen Daniu saw that the third formation of the rebel army was different from the other two formations, with flags in order, so he immediately gave the order to sound the horn.

After Zhu Wen and Huang Gui left, Huang Chao looked at Shang Rang who had just arrived and said, "Today was just the first test, but we were almost defeated by the Xuanwu Army of 1,000 men. It seems that our current strength is not enough to confront these powerful vassals head-on."

Shang Rang asked, "Who is the Grand Commander?"

Huang Chao walked to the front of the military tent, held the pillar in front of the door, looked at the Xuanren Army camp in the distance and said: "Perhaps, it is a mistake for us to come here."

Then, as if he had made up his mind, he said to Shang Rang, "Well, you will immediately lead the rear camp to retreat first. Most of the people in the rear camp are the brothers' relatives, and there are many old and young people. They walk slowly. Wait for us near Mengzhuze."

"If something can be done, then forget it. If it can't be done, then there is always a way out."

"I'll do it right away." Shang Rang received the order and went to the rear camp to prepare for the retreat without asking why.

"Send the order, order Zhu Cun to march out and advance."

After Shang Rang walked away, Huang Chao still sent troops to attack Xuanren's army, one to tire out the enemy, and the other to buy time for the rear camp to retreat.

However, the subsequent attacks were not as reckless as the previous ones. Instead, they reorganized their troops after taking a few steps, leaving the enemy with no chance to attack.

So in the following days, the two armies continued to fight. Chen Daniu also wanted to launch a night attack, but the rebels did not give him the chance. Even at night, Huang Chao would send people with torches to attack the camp.

Even with the elite strength of Xuanren's army, they were still exhausted by the rebels' day and night fighting. The soldiers only slept for two hours a day.

As a last resort, Chen Daniu had to replace the 2,000 men led by Wang Yi at the back, and transferred the 2,000 most tired men from his own unit to retreat for rest, and rotated the front-line soldiers according to the schedule, just to keep the morale of the army from collapsing and the defense line from retreating.

(End of this chapter)