Prosperous Tang Dynasty

Chapter 278
Since he knew that the rebel army had set up a lot of ambushes in front, and the rebel army had scouts watching all the time, the speed of the soldiers and the strategy were all jokes, and he was unwilling to leave the customs, so Ge ​​Shuhan was not in a high mood. Only focus on prudence, advance slowly, and the marching speed is not fast.

The 18 troops walked for a whole day and only walked fifty miles.

The next day, there were lightning and thunder, and it rained cats and dogs for another whole day. Tang Jun was also delayed for a day.
Hearing the sound of the rain, it was noon, but the sky was still extremely dark, like night, Ge Shuhan was so depressed that he could hardly breathe, his wrinkled forehead was full of worry.

"This is not a good sign at all!" Ge Shuhan really wanted to order not to attack Lingbao and Shanzhou, but to return to the army to defend Tongguan.

However, Ge Shuhan also knew that if he was forced to lead the army out of the customs this time, if he had no results at all, or even retreated without fighting the enemy, after returning to Tongguan, I am afraid that His Majesty will be dissatisfied. He will definitely be replaced by His Majesty, and the new marshal will still be forced by His Majesty to go out to fight. The idea of ​​Juntongguan.

It rained heavily for a whole day, and on the third day, Ge Shuhan continued to lead his army eastward.

While marching, Ge Shuhan also spread out hundreds of thousands of scouts to detect the ambush of the rebels as much as possible, but even if he knew there was an ambush, so what? It is a strategy to lure the enemy to attack. He went out to fight in this situation.

Soon, 18 troops arrived at the Xiaohan Ancient Crossing.

This is an ancient road about [-] miles long, with the Yellow River to the north and mountains to the south. The road is more than [-] meters wide at its widest point, but only three to six meters at its narrowest point.

During the Warring States Period, the army of the Qin State often fought fiercely with the armies of the Six Kingdoms here.

A rebel army of about [-] old and weak guarded the entrance of the Weihan Ancient Road, and seemed to want to block the Tang army's eastward advance here.

However, without even thinking about it, Ge Shuhan knew that this was just part of the anti-army's plan to lure the enemy. Even if he had cerebral palsy, he would not believe that the anti-army only had such old and weak soldiers. A large number of arrangements were made, and an ambush was prepared on the Weihan Ancient Road.

"Kill it." Ge Shuhan waved his hand.

"Kill!" Twenty thousand Tang troops rushed over.

How could the more than [-] old, weak, sick and disabled rebels be able to stop the charge of [-] Tang troops?

"Pursue, the whole army pursues, if you don't kill the enemy now, when will you wait!" Bian Lingcheng, the supervisor, shouted loudly.

Along with Bian Lingcheng, several other eunuchs and several officials sent by Yang Guozhong to monitor were shouting and pursuing. It was these people who took the imperial decree of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty to oppress him, and Ge Shuhan had to send troops.

In this case, not to mention Ge Shuhan, many generals of the Tang army knew that there must be fraud in the Weihan Ancient Road ahead, and the rebels were probably ambushing inside, but Bian Lingcheng and other idiots didn't understand military affairs at all. Knowing that the enemy is defeated, you must hunt down and kill them.

"Catch it." Ge Shuhan resisted the urge to strangle Bian Lingcheng and the others to death, sighed, and ordered the whole army to chase into the Weihan Ancient Road.

Just as Ge Shuhan expected, the anti-army coach Cui Qianyou had already led 14 anti-army troops to lay an ambush here, just waiting for Ge Shuhan to bring 18 Tang troops to come in for a decisive battle.

Although the number of the Tang army is 18 more than that of the anti-army, but the Tang army has 14 troops, only more than 18 people have real combat experience, and the rest are new recruits who have entered the battlefield for the first time. There are [-] elites in all battles. This is the absolute main force of the anti-army. The overall strength almost completely beats the [-] Tang army.If it was head-to-head, the rebels would have the upper hand, not to mention that Cui Qianyou had already set up an ambush on the Weihan Ancient Road.

"Report—General, the Tang Army has entered the Weihan Ancient Road!" A rebel scout came to report to Cui Qianyou.

"Okay! Get ready for the battle as planned!" Cui Qianyou ordered.

Although his face remained calm, Cui Qianyou was excited in his heart. This battle has not really started yet, and he is already 18% sure of victory. too easy.

Compared with Cui Qianyou's side, which has already made a lot of preparations, Ge Shuhan's side doesn't have all the right time and place, so he can only tell the soldiers to be careful, take every step counting, and only hope that the defeat will not be too miserable, or it will really succeed. Take Lingbao and Shanzhou City.

The Weihan Ancient Road is just a narrow road that is no more than Bailaimi at the widest point. The 18 Tang troops pursued forward and formed a long dragon.

When Tang Jun chased all the way for more than ten miles, he turned a corner.

All of a sudden, those old, weak and remnant soldiers who fled disappeared, replaced by an elite army led by Cui Qianyou himself, blocking the front.

At the same time, on the southern hillside, a large number of rolling logs and boulders rolled down, accompanied by thousands of arrows from the condescending rebel soldiers.

"Shhhhhh—"

"Ah-ah-"

Those who were smashed into blood by stones and rolling logs, and those who were shot by arrows, the screams of Tang soldiers were everywhere.

These soldiers of the Tang army were originally recruits who had been recruited for only a few months, and their quality was very low, so they became chaotic in an instant.

In order to avoid the rolling logs, boulders and arrow rain rolling down the hillside in the south, the soldiers of the Tang army crowded towards the north one after another.

However, to the north is the surging Yellow River. Countless soldiers of the Tang army were squeezed down the Yellow River, and yellow water splashes were smashed up. In just half a quarter of an hour, the Tang army had died or injured more than [-] people, and their morale was in turmoil.

This is how the bloody battle that pushed the Tang dynasty to the pinnacle of despair began.

As in history, it was impossible for the Tang army, whose overall combat power was at a disadvantage due to the right time and place, to win this war in the end.

Cui Qianyou first lured the Tang army to go deep, and after all the Tang army entered the narrow road, ambushes appeared everywhere, throwing logs and boulders from the high slope in the south, killing the Tang army with heavy casualties and confusion.

Although Ge Shuhan quickly stabilized the morale of the army, the ancient Weihan road was too narrow. Even though the Tang army had [-] more troops than the rebels, they could not use it. The soldiers huddled together, while the rebels always firmly occupied the high ground Tang Jun was killed and wounded in large numbers.

Ge Shuhan knew that although relying on his own reputation, he temporarily stabilized the morale of the army, and partly counterattacked, attacking the high places occupied by the rebels.However, the anti-army had prepared an ambush a long time ago, occupying all the advantages of the land, and it is impossible to rely on this level of counterattack to win. On the contrary, if time drags on, the Tang army's morale will be in chaos again, and the disastrous defeat is just around the corner.
It is impossible to retreat, because with Tang Jun's quality, once the order to retreat is issued, the whole army can only collapse.

Because, the only way out is to go out of the Weihan Ancient Road and reach the city of Shanzhou.

In order to break through Cui Ganyou's line of defense, Ge Shuhan used a horse-drawn felt cart to attack the front team.

With Ge Shuhan's arrangement, if he met an ordinary general, he might really be rushed out by him, but what he met was Cui Qianyou, the three top anti-army generals who were as famous as Shi Siming and Cai Xide.

Cui Ganyou ordered to use dozens of carts of hay to block the impact of Goshuhan's horse-drawn felt cart, and to burn the hay with fire.

Because it just rained yesterday, Cui Qianyou's hay was wet, and smoke billowed after it was lit. It happened that the east wind was blowing at this time, and all the smoke was blown to the west where Tang Jun was located.

Immediately, thick smoke filled Tang Jun's place, and Tang Jun soldiers couldn't open their eyes at all.

Cui Ganyou ordered all the anti-army soldiers to shout and kill in unison, but only sent more than a thousand people to rush into the Tang army and kill them.

Because I couldn't open my eyes, I only heard the sound of killing from all directions, and there were rebel soldiers coming, thinking that the rebels were attacking in an all-round way.

The soldiers of the Tang army panicked, swung their knives and slashed wildly, shooting bows and arrows indiscriminately.

They kept fighting until it was getting dark, the arrows were basically shot out, and the knives also cut the curly blades. Only then did they realize that there were not many rebels lying around the corpses, but their own people accounted for eighty to ninety percent. The soldiers of the Tang army were shocked. When the news reached Geshuhan, Geshuhan was also at a loss.

Coincidentally at this moment, Cui Ganyou ordered the 14 rebels to attack in an all-round way.

Compared with Tang Jun who killed each other for a day, his physical strength was exhausted and his morale was low. The 14 rebels waited for work with ease, and their morale was strong. Once they entered the Tang army, they were like a tiger entering the sheep.

The rebel army took the opportunity to chase and kill them. On this ancient Xiaohan road, the Tang army could only escape in one direction. People crowded and stomped on people, and they killed tens of thousands of Tang army soldiers.

The army was defeated like a mountain, facing such a situation, even if Sun Wu was alive, he couldn't reverse it.

The general situation is over, and Ge Shuhan is full of tears. He wants to gather the remaining soldiers as much as possible and retreat to Tongguan. Not to mention too many, as long as he can gather 2 people and successfully retreat into Tongguan, he still has a little confidence to defend Tongguan.

It's a pity that Cui Qianyou is also a titan among the anti-army. He has carefully arranged for so long to lure the Tang army out of Tongguan, so how could he allow the Tang army to retreat again.

Cui Ganyou tried all means, sending out cavalry to intercept the Tang army everywhere.

After another whole day of continuous bloody battles, when the morning sun rose again, the first batch of defeated Tang troops finally rushed to the foot of Tongguan City, but at this time only a few thousand Tang troops could successfully retreat into Tongguan, because a rebel army The cavalry soon appeared and blocked Tongguan, making it hopeless for the soldiers of the Tang Army behind to return to Tongguan.

Ge Shuhan originally gathered some remnants, but was defeated by Cui Ganyou himself with an elite rebel army.

Moreover, Cui Qianyou only left [-] rebels to continue chasing and killing the collapsed Tang army, while he himself led the main force of [-] rebels to storm Tongguan.

There were few defenders at Tongguan, and the number of soldiers of the Tang army who fled back to Tongguan was no more than 18. Moreover, because of the disastrous defeat of Ge Shuhan, the [-] army was almost wiped out, and the soldiers of the Tang army guarding Tongguan were also in chaos. After supporting for a long time, Cui Qianyou broke through.

A large number of anti-army soldiers poured into Tongguan and lost Tongguan. Suddenly, the door of Guanzhong was wide open.
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(End of this chapter)