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

Chapter 955 I am the pioneer and I will seize the ferry crossing. I will openly take over Xiejiakou and secretly take over Zhaoqiao.

August 13

Li Kerang was appointed as the vanguard officer by Bai Yi, leading 10,000 vanguard troops to serve as the vanguard for the army.

August th

Zhu Jin sent General Yu Li to lead 20,000 troops to defend Xiejiakou at the bend of the Si River to prevent the Xuanwu Army from crossing the Si River.

Li Kerang's 10,000 men and Yu Li's 20,000 men faced each other across the water, with flags covering the sky and drums blaring, neither side giving in.

Seeing that there was no opportunity to cross the river, Li Kerang ordered to set up camp.

That night, Li Kerang summoned the cavalry general Li Neng and ordered him to lead a thousand cavalrymen to retreat fifteen miles and find a shallow ford to secretly cross the Si River.

We must arrive at Xiejiakou at noon the next day and raid the Yanhai Army on the north bank.

August

Li Kerang gathered ferries, ordered people to pick trees to make rafts, and sent a thousand people to land in three directions.

Yu Li was well prepared. After receiving the intelligence, he sent out 3,000 men to wait for the enemy to cross the river.

There were three hundred men in three directions and four hundred men in the middle direction, led by Chu Lin, a brave general under Li Kerang, and they were all elite soldiers.

The rafts and ferries docked, and Chu Lin took the lead, leading several of his personal guards to hold up shields to block the arrows.

A quarter of an hour later, when there were about 200 people gathered, he roared: "Fame and fortune are here, follow me and kill!!!"

Chu Lin then rushed into the 1,000 Yanhai troops that had already formed a battle array.

Chu Lin is indeed a brave general, and the soldiers under his command are indeed the elite selected from the Xuanwu Army.

In just a moment, a hole was opened, throwing the enemy's formation into chaos.

However, their own number of people was too small, and no matter how hard Chu Lin rushed and fought, he was always surrounded by the enemy.

The final result can only be death from exhaustion.

Li Kerang was well prepared.

Of the three forced crossings, only the middle one was successful; the other two were shot down by enemy bows and crossbows, one-third of them before they could reach shore, causing a huge collapse in morale.

"Send the order, Kou Quancheng leads 500 men to continue crossing the river to reinforce Chu Lin."

Li Kerang sent more troops, and Yu Li followed suit.

Chu Lin led more than a hundred warriors, broke out of the siege and returned to the river bank.

"Old Chu, thank you for your hard work. It's up to us now." Kou Quancheng, who had just come ashore, patted Chu Lin's scarred armor and grinned.

Chu Lin sneered without saying anything. He sat on the ground with more than a hundred brothers, watching the soldiers banging and hammering and setting up simple fences to recover their strength.

Kou Quancheng was not angry, but looked at the five hundred brothers who had gathered behind him and said loudly:
"Commander Chu has set a good example for us. Can we be worse than them?"

"No."

"Kill with me!"

After saying that, Kou Quancheng held a small shield in his left hand and waved a short spear in his right hand, and rushed towards the Yanhai army that was rushing towards here.

Because the Yanhai Army had surrounded the Xuanwu Army that had landed in a semicircle and kept shooting bows and crossbows at the rafters inside.

Kou Quancheng paid the price of dozens of soldiers before he could get close to the enemy's formation.

It took only half a minute later than Chu Lin to break through the Yanhai Army's defense line and engage in a melee with the enemy.

Only when Kou Quancheng and the enemy were engaged in a melee did Chu Lin's troops breathe a sigh of relief, put aside their shields riddled with arrows, and cherish the hard-earned rest time.

Another quarter of an hour later, the next batch of 500 Xuanwu troops landed and took over the defense line of Kou Quancheng's troops.

Kou Quancheng was able to return to Chu Lin with the remaining 300 people.

Watching them stand up and adjust their armor, Kou Quancheng nodded and arranged for his men to rest on the spot without losing his ease at the beginning.

Li Kerang continued to implement the tactic of adding fuel to the fire and continuously expanded the defensive position at the ferry. In just one hour, he had transported three thousand people up there.

These 3,000 men were divided into three teams, taking turns to defend against the 5,000 men sent by Yu Li, and suffered heavy losses.

"General, crossing the river under the enemy's nose is a taboo in military strategy. Is Li Kerang crazy?" The officer next to Yu Li asked, not understanding Li Kerang's tactics. Li Kerang kept sending troops to the north bank. As long as Yu Li put in a little effort, they would all be left on the north bank without support, with nowhere to escape.

Yu Li also couldn't understand Li Kerang's tactics. He shook his head and said, "No matter what he does, I just need to make my own arrangements."

"Order, Zhu Zhenqi, lead your 1,000 men, and make sure to break through the enemy's defenses. Leave all these 3,000 men behind."

"Order Yu Dawen to lead 5,000 men to defend the main camp to prevent Li Keyong from making any backup plans. The rest of you, all of you, move forward."

After doing all this, Yu Li murmured, "We can attack or defend. Li Kerang, I don't know how you will respond."

As Zhu Zhenqi's thousand elite troops pressed forward, the Xuanwu Army's formation was suddenly in turmoil. In just half a quarter of an hour, the Xuanwu Army's line collapsed.

The soldiers could not stop retreating, but with the Si River behind them, there was no way to retreat, and many soldiers showed expressions of despair.

“Swoosh~Bang!”

A huge bunch of fireworks shot out from the Xuanwu Army formation on the north bank, exploded in the sky, and echoed on both sides of the north and south banks.

Li Kerang, who had been paying attention to the battle on the north bank, heard this and immediately ordered: "The north bank is about to collapse. Order Li Wu to lead 500 elite troops to support the north."

"Also order Bai Hewan to lead the navy to attack immediately, with archers and crossbowmen to shoot from the water along the Si River rafters, and make sure to suppress the enemy's arrogance."

As Li Kerang's order was issued, the navy that had been escorting grain and fodder three or four miles away received the order and arrived at Xiejiakou with archers.

Judging from the boat, the Xuanwu army formation on the north bank had been reduced to a very small part, with only about 1,900 people left.

The naval commander Bai Hewan acted decisively and ordered the missiles to be fired towards the north bank.

Suddenly, screams were heard from the north bank.

No one expected that a large number of archers would suddenly appear in the water.

Countless arrows came from the water, and the Yanhai soldiers who were facing the Sishui River were in a panic trying to avoid the arrows.

In an instant, the left and right wings of the Yanhai Army became unstable.

Wang Li, the commander-in-chief in charge of commanding the battle on the north bank, sent out the only 100 fresh troops in his possession and finally defeated the left wing of the Yanhai army.

The pressure on the Xuanwu Army suddenly decreased.

Soon, Li Wu and his men came to help, and the Xuanwu Army's front was stabilized again.

Yu Li looked at the reorganized Xuanwu Army and couldn't help but sigh, "It's said that the Xuanwu Army is the best in the world. I used to think that was an exaggeration, but today I see that it's even better."

Just as Yu Li was about to send out the last elite force to deal the final blow to the Xuanwu Army on the north bank, the sun finally reached the center.

With a rumbling sound, a team of Xuanwu Army cavalry crossed the Sishui River from Zhaoqiao downstream, galloped along the north bank, and rushed straight into the Yanhai Army that was besieging the Xuanwu Army on the north bank.

But in the blink of an eye, a thousand knights broke through the Yanhai army formation, and the 15,000-strong army collapsed instantly.

Wang Li raised his sword and shouted, "Our cavalry has arrived, and the enemy's formation has collapsed. If we don't fight back here, when will we fight? Brothers, kill them."

Under the joint attack of more than 2,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, 15,000 people in Yanhai collapsed.

Soon, Li Neng led the cavalry to drive out the defeated troops and disperse Yu Li's main army formation.

Yu Li had no choice but to retreat towards Xia Qiu under the protection of his left and right companions.

Li Kerang captured the key ferry crossing of Xiejiakou in just one day and one night.

The cost was the lives of more than a thousand soldiers.

August 14

Bai Yi sent Chen Daniu to lead 10,000 people to cross Xiejiakou, and head west to capture Rencheng southwest of Xia Qiu, in order to eliminate the threat posed by the main force of the army that was about to arrive.

August

Bai Yi led an army of 50,000 to cross Xiejiakou one by one and officially landed on the territory of Xia Qiu.

As tens of thousands of troops approached Xia Qiu City, the view from the top of the city was like clouds blocking out the sun, with no end in sight. The army formation was well-organized, and it was obvious that they were a well-trained and powerful army.

Bai Yi did not attack the city as soon as he arrived. Instead, he ordered his troops to set up camp and cut down trees to make wooden fences, surrounding the entire Xia Qiu area tightly. Only the east side was left without any troops.

Surround three and leave one open, this is the strategy of war.

(End of this chapter)