Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

At the foot of the mountain at the Western Army Camp, many trenches were dug near the river channel.

There are mounds of earth and wooden fences behind the trenches.

In places where it is really difficult to dig, low walls of earth and stone are also piled up.

On the high mountain on the other side of the river, there were always rebel sentries, who borrowed the general's telescope to observe the situation.

Whenever the Western Army asked the grain transport team to move away grain, Yang Zhi would lead his troops out and act like a decisive battle.

Liu Yanqing, who had previously tried to lure the rebels down the mountain, now had no intention of fighting when facing the rebels coming down the mountain. They just guard the trenches, fences, earth and stone walls and mountain strongholds. If the rebels attack by force, they will take the battle. If the rebels don't attack, they will confront them.

The grain transport team repeatedly circulated and transported the grain to a small station more than ten miles away, and the peasants came back to continue carrying it.

Yang Zhi did not dare to rush into the enemy's defense line. Firstly, he had fewer troops, and secondly, the morale of the Western Army increased.

The improvement in morale is visible to the naked eye and can be seen through a telescope.

The previous Western Army was very unorganized and muddle along lazily.

Now that I heard that the troops can be withdrawn, as long as they hold off the rebels and wait for the food to be transported, they can go home. The whole army is very energetic.

If the rebels attack at this time, the Western Army will definitely fight to the death!

Of course, this desperate effort is optional.

Let them hold the line of defense, and the soldiers of the Western Army are naturally willing to fight desperately. They are fighting to get home alive.

But let them cross the line of defense to fight, then I'm sorry, you have to escape if you should, just because it's not for yourself.

"If we forcefully fill in those trenches, we can still cross the fence and fight our way in," Wang Xiong said.

But Yang Zhi had his own ideas, shook his head and said: "The gain is not worth the loss, and the lives of the soldiers have been lost in vain. The battle must be fought halfway when the officers and soldiers are retreating. There are no obstacles to stop them, and the officers and soldiers are in a hurry to return home and will not fight hard. That's good at that time. beated."

Yang Zhi simply ordered the troops to be withdrawn, allowing the soldiers to recharge their batteries, and at the same time organized civilians to transport food.

A few days later, the sentry sent back news that the officers and soldiers were abandoning the camp and retreating.

Yang Zhi immediately led his army to fight out. He only had 12,000 men.

As for Liu Yanqing's Western Army, in addition to those guarding the food roads along the way, as well as those who were killed or captured in previous battles, there are still more than 23,000 people left.

When Yang Zhi led his troops to fight, the main force of the Western Army had withdrawn three or four miles, but there were still thousands of archers left.

When the rebels filled the first ditch under the rain of arrows, the Western archers panicked, fired another hasty shot and ran away.

Yang Zhi ordered: "Fill in a passage and let the elite chase after it first!"

A passage several meters wide was filled in, the wooden fence was pushed down, and wooden boards were put up on the earth and stone walls. Yang Zhiqin led his troops to chase.

The further you go, the narrower it becomes. At the narrowest point, only one person can walk.

It was impossible to fight in this kind of terrain, or even to set up an ambush, because the mountains beside the road were difficult to climb.

After advancing for more than ten miles, we finally reached an open area. There used to be a village here, but now it was empty and no ghosts could be seen.

It was probably once used as a transfer station for the Western Army, and many wooden fences were installed. The Western Army withdrew so quickly that they did not even destroy the wooden fences. Yang Zhi repaired them a little and used them as campsites.

Yang Zhi took this road to defect to Daming Village in the first place. He knew the terrain ahead very well.

The road will become narrower and narrower, and eventually become a long plank road.

There was no point in chasing them. The officers and soldiers only needed to let hundreds of elite soldiers cut off their backs to block the rebels on the plank road.

And it's getting dark, so it's better not to pursue them at night.

…

Han Shizhong was at the entrance of the plank road. If the rebels came after him, he would immediately retreat to the plank road. If they didn't pursue him, he would line up in a long snake formation and spend the night.

This kind of terrain can only be a long snake.

"Cheer up, everyone, don't be like your parents who died!"

Han Shizhong was boosting morale, but nothing he said was of any use.

Except for Han Shizhong's troops (only a few dozen people left), the rest were all new soldiers recruited this year.

The name is Duanhou, but he is actually an abandoned son!

It's like a person going home in the evening, always followed by a hungry wolf, who always has to throw two bones to escape.

Han Shizhong and these soldiers were the bones used to feed the wolves.

If it were any other terrain, they would have scattered and fled long ago. But here is the Tangluo Road. Either surrender on the spot, fight from behind, or chase the large army and be punished by military law. There is no other choice.

The military order they received was to try to block the rebel pursuit for at least five days.

The mission is actually very easy to complete, just hold on to the plank road with all your strength. The difficult thing is how to escape after completing the mission?

The old soldier in charge of the investigation came back: "Fifth brother, the bandits didn't catch up, they camped in that valley."

Han Shizhong asked: "Is the enemy camp tightly guarded?"

The detective soldier replied: "I couldn't see clearly. I didn't dare to get too close. I just took a glance at it from a distance. The bandits were outside the camp and sent soldiers to patrol. They were also looking towards the mountain road. It might be difficult to rob the camp tonight." "

After hearing this, Han Shizhong immediately gave up his night attack plan.

Even the scouts can't get close. If a large force passes by, they will definitely be discovered. This thief will be so damn cautious.

Han Shizhong said: "Light up a torch and cross the plank road in the dark!"

As long as it is not in disrepair, there is no danger in crossing the plank road at night.

Passing through the several hundred meters long plank road area, in front of you is the military rations left by Liu Yanqing.

Moreover, the military rations were abundant, and he did not dare to run out of supplies, otherwise the 1,000-man rear-end troops would immediately flee.

Han Shizhong led all the troops through the plank road and took action immediately after dawn.

He first asked the soldiers to pry up the pallet. This operation was relatively easy, and he quickly pried it away twenty or thirty meters.

Han Shizhong also wanted to pull out the beams, but after a long time, not a single beam was pulled out.

This requires the use of professional tools to knock out the long triangular wooden wedges, and the remaining stack beams can be kicked off with one kick.

"The thieves are coming!"

Han Shizhong looked up and saw the rebels advancing slowly along the plank road.

"Archer!"

Yang Zhi was also shouting: "Captain!"

One squad leader after another moved forward cautiously. The rest of the soldiers stepped on the plank road and held on to the vine branches on the cliff wall without moving, allowing the captains to move forward and shoot arrows.

The rebels have not yet formed a specialized archery unit, and only squad leaders are equipped with bows and arrows.

The long card player walked in the front carrying a huge shield, followed by twenty or thirty squad captains. The two sides threw arrows at each other across the destroyed plank road.

"Boards, nails, plank road destroyed!"

shouted the long player.

This sentence continued to spread, and Yang Zhi asked the carpenter to go back to the mountain valley to cut down trees.

It's definitely too late to plan the board now, so I specially cut off the arm-thick wood and sawed it into sections. This thing can also be nailed to the beams.

Wood, hammers, and nails were sent to the front.

A small captain put away his bow and arrows and said to the long card player in front: "Move the shield outward."

The team leader lay down, stretched out half of his body, put a piece of wood on the front stack beam, and then picked up a hammer to smash the nails. Just fix your own side, the other end is too far to reach.

Han Shizhong bent his bow and shot an arrow at the squad leader.

An arrow hit his head, but did not penetrate the bamboo helmet.

Ordinary bamboo helmets cannot withstand strong bows, but when weaving bamboo helmets, paper tendons are sandwiched between two layers of bamboo strips.

Not to mention bows and arrows, small-caliber bullets can also be prevented!

The protective power of paper armor against swords, guns, bows, arrows, and bullets is actually better than that of iron armor, and it is extremely light to wear on the body. As long as you don't soak in the water for a long time, it doesn't matter if you get wet in the rain, it will just make it heavier.

The real fatal flaw of paper armor is that it is not durable!

After a few battles, the paper armor was basically useless and a new one had to be built.

If it is a high-intensity war, after a battle, the paper armor will be beaten beyond recognition. This thing is purely a consumable.

The huge impact of the arrow still hurt the captain's head.

But it's still bearable. The dome-shaped structure of the helmet distributes the stress on the entire head.

"Shoot, shoot!"

shouted the long player.

The team leaders in the rear launched their missiles towards the opposite side to cover the friendly forces in repairing the plank road.

From morning to evening, the plank road was only repaired less than ten meters.

The four people in front and behind were shot in the hands by the Western Army while hammering nails.

Many people were shot and wounded on both sides, but only two or three unlucky ones died due to the protection of their armor.

Yang Zhi has pulled the extra troops back to the small valley and sent people in turn to build the plank road in front. He didn't rest at night and continued the construction with torches.

Han Shizhong was too old to dismantle the beams, so he wrapped them in firewood and set them on fire.

Although the wood of the stack beams has been specially treated to resist corrosion and fire, it will still break after being burned several times. Several plank beams at the entrance of the plank road were destroyed by Han Shizhong.

When the long poker player saw the situation, he immediately reported it to Yang Zhi, who then sent someone to build a long bamboo ladder. The last section of the plank road was directly laddered.

Just make the ladder denser.

It took two days before and after, as the distance between the two sides became closer and closer, the difficulty of repairing the plank road also increased greatly.

The person who hammers nails not only wears three layers of armor and two layers of helmets, but also protects his face, neck, and hands. As soon as his upper body was stretched out, more than a dozen arrows were shot at him.

When there were only the last ten meters left, the soldiers of the Western Army began to panic.

"Fifth brother, these birdmen want to steal food and escape!"

On the second night, more than a dozen soldiers were escorted to Han Shizhong.

The other soldiers were awakened and gathered in this direction.

Han Shizhong originally planned to deal with it through military law, but by the light of the torch, he felt that something was wrong with the atmosphere.

"Commander Han, withdraw. The superiors said we should guard for five days, but we have already guarded for two days. We can already afford the food and wages."

"Why can others leave first, leaving only us to break up the rear?"

"Yes, we are all born and raised by our parents, and our lives are not cheap."

"..."

Soldiers surrounded him one after another, and Han Shizhong was forced to retreat continuously.

If we don't make a decision, the army will definitely mutiny, because these are not Han Shizhong's soldiers!

Han Shizhong's serious expression instantly disappeared and turned into a playful smile: "I have wanted to withdraw for a long time, but I was afraid that you wouldn't agree. If you have any ideas, don't hide them. If you had said it yesterday, we would have withdrawn yesterday, and you still have to use it. Should I wait until now?"

As soon as this statement came out, the morale of the army was greatly boosted, and the soldiers happily went to carry the grain bags.

Han Shizhong looked at the excited soldiers and sat alone in silence. He was becoming more and more confused now.