Ping An Biography

In front of the winding brown earthen wall, groups of people spread like an ebbing tide, and the teams behind had dispersed.However, there were horse soldiers rushing from between the battalions. The two kinds of soldiers and horses staggered and moved in opposite directions, like a whirlpool. The scene was very spectacular.

The cavalry rushed over with sparse rangers and were attacked by rows of muskets. Many fell off their horses, but many people approached the earth wall by virtue of their running speed.But there was a deep hook in front of the earth wall, and the horse soldiers were not stupid enough to jump into the ditch. They fired three-eyed guns at the top of the wall, and then drew their bows and released arrows.This group of cavalry was very brave, and nearly half of the casualties had not retreated, as if they had come to die; they were obviously buying time for the infantry behind to attack.Armored infantry like forests, long spears and spears like moving trees.

People kept falling to the sound of gunshots, but a group of infantry soldiers in the center really endured the casualties and approached. They rushed up with roars and stabbed the wall with their long spears.But at this moment, the firearms soldiers behind the Suzaku army stood up, not only out of the attack range of the spears, but also higher than the waist wall. "Papa..." A gunshot rang out.The official infantry finally couldn't stand such a battle, and those who survived dropped their spears and turned around and ran away.

The infantry at the front was defeated, and soon the phalanxes on the rear stopped their advance, and they wisely turned around and retreated.

A large number of people retreated to the distance, gradually drifting away.On the flat ground outside the waist wall, there was a horrible scene. There were corpses lying in almost every small place, and in a few concentrated places, the corpses were even piled up on top of each other.Weapons stuck on the ground and sundries scattered all over the place made the battlefield full of mess and chaos.This is probably the scene of corpses strewn all over the field.

There have been greater disasters in the world, such as the flooding of the Yellow River, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties, but the intuitive visual experience cannot keep up with such a battlefield.People who died from natural disasters were widely distributed, but at this time, due to the limited power of weapons and the main mode of concentrating troops to win or lose, it would be surprising that so many people died all at once on a small battlefield.

The gunpowder smoke gradually dissipated, only to see that the faces of Zhang Ning and others had turned black, as if they had been wiped with ashes from a pot, and Xin Weizheng beside him was silently wiping their faces with a handkerchief.

Zhang Ning looked into the distance, and the officers and soldiers camp in the distance were full of people. He felt that the British Duke Zhang Fu should be there, but he couldn't see it.This battle should also be an order from Zhang Fu, but I don't know how he feels when he sees the scene of corpses strewn all over the field.

At this moment, I saw some people walking over from a distance carrying shelves.A man on horseback came forward holding a wooden stick tied with white silk, and shouted: "Look, we don't bring weapons! They are all raised by parents. Everyone has wives and children at home. The one on the opposite side Brother, don't let go of the gun, it's convenient, let us save the undead."

The soldiers behind the wall stood and watched, but no one spoke.Zhang Ning on the earthen castle saw it clearly, turned his head and said to a messenger: "Go and send an order. Attacks are strictly prohibited at this time, and let the other party take away the wounded soldiers. Tell the officers and generals that this king respects the brave soldiers in battle, and let them Wounded soldiers who have done their duty come home alive."

After a while, the call of the messenger came from below, repeating Zhang Ning's words.The general on the horse raised his head and stared at the figure on the bunker for a long time.

At this moment, Zhang Chengzong suddenly shouted at the top of his voice: "Don't move, stand in your own place... The people on your side will remember that they put you on the first wall, how did you get to the back?" Where is your leader, come out!"

Some of them were standing, and some were sitting against the earthen wall, looking at the group of people who were caught.Some people are eating dry food and drinking water, some are looking after the injured, and the surroundings have calmed down.Zhang Chengzong got on his horse and rushed over with a group of soldiers, cursing and ordering them to disarm the deserters.

Zhang Ning called another messenger and said in a low voice, "Go and tell Zhang Chengzong that one of the ten deserters will be drawn and killed!"

The deserters were cleared out, all of them were from the Jiujiang Army.The soldiers of the Yongding Camp are not going to retreat in this obviously unbeatable battle.There were about several hundred deserters in total, all of whom were deprived of muskets and short soldiers, and were driven in groups to the spacious flat ground between the two walls.The people stood dejected and terrified, as armed troops faced them on either side.

Zhang Chengzong ordered them to be divided into eight rows, and said loudly: "Count from both sides, and you will die when you count to ten. If you dare to leave the place where you stand, you will be killed!"

Executing soldiers pointed their muskets one by one, touched the muzzles of the guns on people's backs and read out a number. The faces of the unlucky deserters were all as white as paper, and some of them broke out in cold sweat.When counting to ten, a musket was pressed against the back of the person with a "bang", knocking one down.Even if he didn't die, after this experience, it feels like walking in front of Lord Yama's door once.

Zhang Chengzong yelled: "There is a saying in our army, those who seek the living die, and those who seek the dead live! After this battle, not one of the ten people who fought hard in the front could die; if you run away, one of the ten must be picked to take the blame! Fleeing in battle, It's pretty light!"

The battlefield was quiet all afternoon, and Zhang Fu didn't send anyone up to try to attack again.Zhang Ning sent someone up to shout out, agreeing that the officers and soldiers would send someone to collect the corpse.If the corpse is thrown on the field, it will rot easily and plague will occur. At the same time, the officers and soldiers should not want to watch their own people suffer in the sun and rain in the field.

In the evening, the officers and soldiers began to retreat to the corridor on the north bank of Baishui Lake one after another.They had no results in this battle, but they might not give up if they didn't try.

The garrison troops of the Zhuque Army and the Jiujiang Army also set up camp behind the earthen wall and set up tents in the evening. On the land that had been trampled to the ground where there was no grass left when the fortifications were being repaired, cooking smoke rose everywhere, and the injured soldiers were sent to the city one after another. lift.Zhang Chengzong was left on duty, and the rest, civil and military, followed Zhang Ning back to the city.

In the evening, the governor's yamen came back to do a detailed job, and reported the news to Zhang Ning face to face.The South Route Army of the official army transported troops by boat from Duchang, and the former army had already seized Nankang Mansion in the south of Jiujiang River.What happened to the North Route Army in the west? No one came back to say for a while, and it was estimated that they should go to the Yangtze River to cross the river.

Zhang Ning, Yu Qian and others discussed in the lobby for a while, and everyone was guessing what they would do when more troops from the army arrived in Jiujiang City.Some people say that the official army may attack from three sides at the same time in order to disperse the strength of the Suzaku army.But after today's battle, Zhang Ning didn't think that Zhang Fu would do this; even if the army had 10,000+ troops, such a heavy-loss tactics would still be unbearable. After all, the price paid by the Suzaku army was very low.

Surround but not attack, trap everyone?Zhang Ning guessed Zhang Fu's thoughts, this kind of stupid method is also very common.In the era when the ancient generals encountered a strong city and had no artillery, they surrounded and waited if they could not defeat it.

Jiujiang City has a lot of grain stockpiled, Zhang Ning said: "Tomorrow morning, you and I will go and look at the various granaries."