Late Tang

(Thanks to Zui Xiaodao and Lin Biao for their support here, thank you!)

The night is like a dark curtain, and the rain is like pouring.

On such a rainy night, there is a fleet on the Huaihe River that braves the rain and rushes through the storm like an arrow, rushing towards the south bank.

Li Jing stood tall on the front cabin of the fifth deck of the flagship of the Sirius. He was wearing a poncho, and inside was a set of dark gold full body armor with sharp edges and corners.On the smooth and shiny plate armor breastplate is inscribed a silver wolf with wings piercing the moon and screaming at the sky.He pressed his hands vigorously on the silver wolf-head hilt of the two-handed sword hanging from his waist.

"The more the enemy thinks that it is impossible for us to send troops on a rainy night like tonight, the more we can catch them by surprise." Li Jing said with a smile.

Li Jing chose to do it tonight, and many officers in the army thought it was too hasty.Before the war, [-]% of the gunpowder in the gunpowder depot was wet, which made many staff members agree that the fighting strength of the Qin army had dropped drastically.At the same time, tonight's torrential rain will cover up the night raid's actions, but such a rainy night is also a major test for the night raid itself.Night raids are a double-edged sword. Non-elite troops generally dare not do night raids, and the larger the scale of the night raid, the more they will test the level of the commanding general. Night raids are full of too many uncertain factors.Moreover, on such a rainy night, the remaining firearms in Qin Jun's hands were completely useless.Even, on such a rainy night, bows and crossbows are almost useless.

But Li Jing insisted that fighting is not fighting.Water is impermanent, and soldiers are impermanent.Once the goals have been drawn up, the next thing you need is to implement them with all your strength.Even the Qin army thought that such a rainy night was not suitable for a surprise attack. Presumably the Huai army on the other side would become more relaxed. This was Qin's opportunity.

Li Jing has never liked to fight those direct decisive battles. In Li Jing's view, it has no technical content, and it is also a huge battle of attrition.

Li Jing likes to surprise and take the initiative.

"The Gaoyu camp in Huaiyin currently has [-] soldiers and horses, plus [-] strong civilians. Among them, there are nearly [-] large and small boats in the water village." Even the entire Supervisory Office felt ashamed.During these times, both the fifth concubine and Gongsun Lan are doing their best to search for the enemy's situation, so as to avoid the situation of weak intelligence like some time ago.

Gongsun Lan felt that the annihilation of Hu Douzhou's garrison seemed to put a lot of pressure on the beloved man in front of him, although on the surface he didn't even say much about Hu Douzhou's matter.But she could clearly feel that he seemed to be full of guilt for Hu Douzhou's [-] annihilated garrisons, and even more angry for Gao Pian.At present, many staff officers believe that the current situation in the south should be in the stage of shrinking defense, temporarily abandon Xuzhou, and according to Sizhou defend Huaidong.The main force of the Qin army should be transferred back to Hebei to prepare for the upcoming decisive battle in Hebei.

But Li Jing couldn't listen to it, and refused to go north for a long time. Instead, he insisted on fighting Gao Pian in Huainan, and even changed his original defensive plan to take the initiative to attack Huainan.

This is a proud man. Gao Pian was the first day of junior high school, and he was going to be fifteen.

"Why don't you concentrate your forces to attack Huaiyin Gaoyu camp together?" Gongsun Lan was still a little puzzled.

Tonight's action was beyond the expectations of many people. Only the navy troops attacked the Huaiyin camp, and not all the navy troops.Li Jing brought nearly [-] main forces, but the goal was not the Huaiyin camp.

Li Jing stared at the rainy night without saying a word.

Haozhou, Yongcheng.

Ge Congzhou, Inspector of Haozhou, Zhang Guiba, Inspector of Yingzhou, Huo Cun, Inspector of Suzhou, the three founding generals of the Great Qi Empire joined together.All three of them were old generals in Huang Chao's early days, and now they all lead the army.At this time, the three generals suddenly gathered in Haozhou, and they acted secretly.

Yongcheng is located between Songzhou and Xuzhou, where it meets the two states.Moreover, Xuzhou was divided into two in the early years, with Xuzhou in the north and Suzhou in the south. Yongcheng is located at the intersection of Song, Xu and Suzhou.And it is on the east bank of the Bianhe Canal. Going up against the canal, you can go straight to Songcheng, the governor of Songzhou, go south along the canal, you can go directly to the Zhisuo Bridge in Suzhou, and you can go straight to Xuzhou in the east.It is at the key point of water and land, the throat of land.

Zhang Guiba's two cousins ​​Zhang Guihou and Zhang Guimou entered the hall.

"How's the situation?" Zhang Guiba asked immediately when he saw the two brothers coming back.

"It came out. The Huai army in Shouzhou and Haozhou, as Ge Shuai said, only a small number of soldiers, and the rest are mostly civilians. At this time, the main force of the Huai army is concentrated in Huaiyin, Chuzhou. It seems that they Sure enough, I will have a showdown with Li Jing." Zhang Guihou laughed.

Zhang Guimou added later: "At present, Li Jing has assembled [-] elite soldiers in Sizhou and is guarding the Huaihe River. It seems that he also intends to compete with the Huai army before taking Xuzhou."

Huo Cun, who was drinking tea at the side, his eyes lit up, and he laughed and said: "Brother Gao and second brother, Gao Pian and Li Jing are fighting each other, but Shi Pu is vacillating on one side. This is our chance. At this time, Xu and Su Er The emptiness of the prefecture is a good time to capture it in one fell swoop. Taking Xu and Su prefectures, blocking Gao Pian by the Huaihe River in the south, blocking Li Jing in Si prefecture in the east, and threatening Yan and Song in the north, is extremely important for us to compete for Lu. "

Although the Shou and Hao prefectures are equally empty at the moment, Huang Chao, the emperor of Qi, has said beforehand that Ge Congzhou and others can live in peace with Gao Pian.Huang Chao was very afraid of Gao Pian.When he fought Gao Pian several times in the past, Huang Chao almost jumped into the river without being beaten. Although he finally won once, and Gao Pian never dealt with him again, he didn't think it was Gao Pian who was really scared of being beaten by him.Huang Chao's whole thought was to capture Chang'an and destroy Li Tang while defending Luoyang.As for Gao Pian, at this stage he doesn't want to take the initiative to provoke him.

Ge Congzhou thought about it and nodded. This is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.Xuzhou has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. Especially in the current situation, Qi, Qin, and Huai are competing in Huaibei to compete in the Central Plains. Xuzhou's position is becoming more and more important.Whoever wins Xuzhou will gain a strategic advantage in Huaibei.

"I will personally lead the troops to Xuzhou. Second and third brothers, you will lead the troops to attack Suzhou. We will divide and attack each of them. We will try our best to take down Xuzhou before Li Jing and Gao Pian decide the winner." Ge Ge From Zhou Shen said.

"I think it's better to send someone to contact Zhu Asan and ask him to send troops to Songzhou to contain it."

"it is good."

Huaiyin, the south bank of the Huaihe River.

Pillar-like torrential rain was falling. In the rainy night, the warships of the Qin Army Navy had slowed down. The lanterns on the boats could only illuminate a few steps away in the rain. The yellow dragon flooded the river.

"Ready to fight!"

In the cabin, Zhu Xuan, who was wearing a dark blue bust, picked up the horizontal knife and slapped his round iron shield a few times, calling out his subordinates.

The cabin was full of soldiers wearing half body armor. Because of the rainy night, these soldiers were not equipped with the shocking thunder they were used to, nor did they have bows on their backs, let alone crossbows.All of a sudden, two bows, one crossbow, four thunderbolts and two pots of swords were missing, and everyone was much lighter.But in this way, everyone's combat power has also dropped significantly.

"Check equipment!"

After Zhu Xuan finished drinking, he took the lead in checking his equipment. He was wearing a half plate armor with a wire rope armor inside, a pot-shaped steel helmet on his head, neck guard, arm armor, greaves, leather boots, leather bring.There is a horizontal knife at the waist, a three-edged thorn on the left leg, and a dagger on the right leg, and an eight-foot three-edged flag gun in his hand, plus a steel round shield.There is also a water bottle, a small first aid kit, and a two-day dry food on the back of the waist.Plus three cowhide ropes for binding people!

After checking one by one, he got up and jumped a few times, and the equipment on his body did not fall loose.

He had already sensed that the battle was about to begin, and Zhu Xuan felt that it would be a tough battle. There were no thunderbolts, bows, crossbows, artillery support, and cavalry support. There is no way out.

The most critical thing is that although the navy is attacking tonight, the real main force is actually the navy and marine troops.

Zhu Xuan was not a rookie who fought for the first time. He worked as a salt dealer, and later joined the army, ate food under Cao Quanzhen, fought against Huang Chao, and worked against Wang Xianzhi. Finally, he was transferred from Cao Quanzhen by Li Jing.At that time, he was transferred to Li Jing's subordinates, as well as Brother Zhao Ji from Zhongwu Town, Zeng Yuanyu from the Forbidden Army, etc. However, Zhao Ji and Zeng Yuanyu were originally generals, and now they are the top generals in the Qin Army.

And although he, Zhu Xuan, has fought in Liaodong, Hebei and other places for several years, but now he is only a battalion commander.

"The [-]nd Right Battalion in the front of the Seventh Army of the Navy and Marine Warfare is ready!" Zhu Jin, the commander of the [-]nd Right Battalion, said loudly.

"All three are ready!" Zhu Qiong reported.

"All four are ready!" Zhu Yu stepped forward and reported.

"The five capitals are ready!" Zhu Han, the youngest of Zhu Xuan's five brothers, also shouted loudly.

Five of Zhu Xuan's brothers were transferred to the first battalion together at the beginning, but now it is very rare to stay in the first battalion.This kind of situation is very rare in the town government, but the positions of the brothers are still low, if they go up, according to the military system, it is absolutely impossible to get together as officials again.

"After the ship docks in a while, you all follow me closely!" Zhu Xuan said loudly.

Before he finished talking, he suddenly heard a vibration on the soles of his feet, and everyone in the cabin shook for a while, and then heard someone shouting from the hatch: "We've reached the shore, hurry up, all get off the boat!"

Zhu Xuan quickly grasped his weapon, waved his hand, and the 500 men and horses of the Seventh Marine Corps Battalion in the front and rear battalion carried on this huge Bian boat got into the rain one after another, and then jumped under the boat one by one.

The boat didn't land completely, but stopped on the beach a few feet away from the shore. Zhu Xuan and the others had to jump into the water, and then waded to land on the beach.

Jumping into the somewhat icy water of the Huaihe River, the river water flowing into his stomach rushed towards the bank desperately with his gun and shield in hand.

During the march, he looked left and right, and saw troop carriers arrive one after another in the rushing rain, and then groups of soldiers jumped into the river, rushing to the shore just like him.

While struggling forward, Zhu Xuan forgot the battle plan before the battle in his mind. The place where they landed at this time was about ten miles above the camp of the Huai army in Huaiyin, so there was no need to worry that the Huai army would find and stop them on such a rainy night.However, this also meant that after they went ashore, they had to march ten miles on foot in a heavy rainy night before they could reach the Huai army camp and launch an attack.

Before that, any accident may cause this mere 10 marines to encounter a counterattack of [-] people from the Huaiyin camp.

Behind them, apart from the rolling waves of the Huaihe River, there were no reinforcements!

This is the last stand! (To be continued.)