Poor Family 1

  Chapter 410 Into a desperate situation

On the official road, more than 2,000 soldiers had quickly formed an army formation. Zhang Cen was extremely nervous. Standing on a high place and looking around, he saw his soldiers constantly fleeing from the east. The soldiers even lost their armor and weapons and ran back with bare hands, but there were no signs of enemy attacks around them.

About half an hour later, almost all the soldiers had arrived. Zhang Cen counted the army and found that nearly a thousand people were missing. They must have been attacked and killed by officers and soldiers. Zhang Cen quickly glanced at Guan Sheng and saw that he was full of people. With a sneer on his face and his hands behind his back without saying a word, Zhang Cen was secretly annoyed, but unable to act out, he had to order: "Rest where you are, and don't act rashly again!"

The soldiers sat down to rest one after another. Many of them were still in shock and sat blankly on the grass. Livestock can feed 4,000 soldiers for three to four days, and it is no problem to go to Gaotang County.

  There was no movement all night, the officers and soldiers seemed to have disappeared, and they were no longer seen within a five-mile radius, but the soldiers were still trembling with fear, basically maintaining a semi-sleeping state, and no one dared to sleep soundly.

  Early the next morning, amidst the shouts of the generals, the soldiers got up one after another, dragged their heavy bodies, and continued to march north

In a forest ten miles away to the south, a thousand cavalry soldiers were resting in the woods. This time Li Yanqing divided his troops into three groups. The infantry rushed to Gaotang County first by taking the path.

Li Yanqing personally led a thousand cavalry to follow the soldiers of the Liangshan Army, and seized every opportunity to annihilate the scattered troops of the enemy. Of the three hundred soldiers, the Liangshan Army had already killed more than 1,200 people.

  At this time, a cavalry scout rushed over, rushed into the woods and shouted: "The enemy has risen and set off."

Li Yanqing immediately ordered his cavalry to get up, and everyone got on their horses one after another. They drank water and ate dry food on the horses while driving. Their speed was not fast, basically similar to walking. speed.

   Behind the cavalry, there were hundreds of mules full of hay and fodder, and a hundred soldiers took care of them. The team headed northward.

On the other side of the Yellow River in Gaotang County is Yucheng County, Qizhou. Both Gaotang County and Yucheng County have a Yellow River wharf. Last autumn, Song Jiang personally led an army of tens of thousands to cross the Yellow River from the Yucheng County Wharf and entered the Bozhou.

   Now that the imperial court has dispatched troops to Shandong, the situation in Jeju in the southwest is suddenly tense. Song Jiang has to be forced to fully shrink the front line, and concentrate all the troops distributed in various states in Yunzhou and Jeju, preparing to fight to the death with the main force of cultivating teachers.

   Qizhou's army was also transferred back to Yunzhou, leaving only 3,000 people stationed in Licheng County, an important town. There was no army stationed in Yucheng County, but there were more than 100 large and small ships moored at the Yellow River Wharf.

This morning, hundreds of soldiers rushed to the pier from Licheng County. They brought the order of the lord Song Jiang to send all the ships to Gaotang County to prepare for the Hebei soldiers to return to Qizhou. Although Song Jiang decided to temporarily abandon Hebei, he Unable to abandon the army on the other side of the Yellow River, especially the two important brothers Zhang Cen and Guan Sheng, if something happened to them, it would be difficult for Song Jiang to explain to the other brothers in Zhongyitang.

   "Let's go now, go directly to Gaotang County and wait!"

  The soldiers boarded the boat one after another, and a commander urged the boatmen to sail northward.

The boatmen had no choice but to untie the cables, pull up the sails, and the cargo ships staggered away from the wharf and headed for the other side of the Yellow River. pigeon letter.

  Lu Fei led 300 soldiers and arrived in Gaotang County two hours ago on ten cargo ships. Their mission was the same as that of Shenxian County Wharf. They destroyed all the ships that came to pick up the Liangshan Army soldiers, preventing the Hebei Liangshan Army from going south by boat.

  Lu Fei received news from the other side that more than 100 ships had left the pier and set off. He immediately ordered: "The ships set off and intercept the fleet on the other side!"

Ten large ships carrying 300 soldiers left the wharf of Gaotang County and headed for the middle of the Yellow River. In less than a quarter of an hour, they saw small black spots several miles away, densely packed with small black spots. Hundreds of ships.

   "Ready to strike!"

   Thirty soldiers on each ship took their positions one after another, prepared kerosene and rockets, and waited for the opportunity for the two ships to cross.

  The water warfare of the Song Dynasty mainly used firearms. Firearms were used to burn the sails or hulls of the opponent's warships, causing the opponent to suffer heavy damage and had to withdraw from the battle. If you were lucky, you would return to the dock. If you were unlucky, you would sink directly into the river.

   Kerosene has always been a sharp weapon in water warfare. Generally, warships will prepare a lot of sand, and soldiers will cover the kerosene sprayed by the enemy with sand in time.

But the 100 ships of the Liangshan Army are not warships, but 100 ordinary cargo ships. Each ship has only a few soldiers on board. They have no firearms or fireproof sand. They don't even realize that they will encounter enemy ships. , They thought they just loaded up the soldiers and returned to the other side of the Yellow River.

There were thirty soldiers on each ship of the Xuanwu Camp, equipped with more than one hundred pots of kerosene and a large number of rockets. At this time, the front ship approached the other ship head-on. When the two ships passed by each other, stood still The soldiers on the side of the ship were already ready, and they threw altars of kerosene onto the deck of the opposing ship.

  Twenty pottery altars ‘Bang! boom! 'Cracked, the kerosene in the altar flowed all over the deck, and the pungent smell permeated the opponent's ship. Several soldiers in charge of archery were ready. They lit the rocket in the burning iron barrel. Several burning and smoking arrows The arrow shoots at the opponent's ship.

  'Boom! The kerosene on the ship was ignited, burning rapidly, and burned the entire deck in an instant. The boatmen shouted in fright. At this time, the sails of the ship were also ignited by the rocket, and the fire took advantage of the wind to turn the whole ship into a sea of ​​flames. .

The soldiers did the same thing, and the dozens of large ships sailing in the front were quickly set ablaze. Smoke billowed on the river and flames raged. The boatmen jumped into the water with their logs in their hands to escape. Seeing that the situation was not good, the ships behind turned around and headed towards the pier on the south bank. drive away.

  The ships of the Xuanwu camp did not stop, they continued to chase, and the boatman could spare them, but they had to burn all the ships, completely cutting off the hope of the Liangshan soldiers in Hebei Province withdrawing to the south bank.

When thousands of Liangshan troops marched for five days and five nights and finally arrived at Gaotang County, 800 miles away, they were still greeted by the closed city gate and thousands of cold arrows on the top of the city. Qianxiang soldiers were stationed in Gaotang County, pushing thousands of Liangshan Army soldiers who had traveled long distances into the abyss of despair.

Two miles away, 4,000 soldiers of the Liangshan Army were resting in the woods beside the official road. Every soldier was downcast and depressed to the extreme. They thought they could enter Gaotang County to have a good rest and order a meal, but unexpectedly they came late In one step, thousands of enemy soldiers have already occupied Gaotang County. Unless they desperately capture the county seat, they really have nowhere to go.

Zhang Cen was also extremely disappointed. In fact, when he was in Liaocheng, he vaguely guessed that the situation in Gaotang County was similar and must have been occupied by the enemy. Army, perhaps the ships that came to meet them were moored at the wharf of the Yellow River.

  Now half of the hope has been cut off, and there is still the last half of hope. Is there a boat sent by the big brother at the Yellow River pier?

  At this time, a group of soldiers who went to the Yellow River wharf to inquire about news came back, and they brought a boatman who swam ashore by luck.

  Zhang Cen hurried forward and asked, "How is the situation?"

   "General, the situation is very bad!"

   "Why?" Zhang Cen's heart sank, and he faintly realized something.

  The boatman knelt down and cried: "We were going to **** the general across the river, but we met the other's boats. They were very fierce. They shot fire with arrows. We couldn't resist it. Many boats were burned. We had to jump into the water to escape."

   "What about the other ships?"

  Zhang Cen asked urgently: "Have all the ships been burned?"

   "I don't know about the other ships. They fled back, but the enemy's ships also chased after them. It is estimated that there will be bad luck."

  Zhang Cen seemed to have fallen into an ice cave, shivering from the cold, he was completely desperate, all escape routes were blocked, what should they do?

  At this time, a soldier came running wildly, pointing to the distance and shouting: "General, look at the cavalry!"

  Zhang Cen looked back, and saw a cavalry team appearing on a high ground several miles away. There were more than a thousand people, like a pack of wolves that had been following their prey, looking at their prey from a distance.

what to do? Where should they go? Zhang Cen stood in a daze for a long time, and finally he couldn't help but sighed a long time, and ordered: "Pass on my order, the army will continue to go north, to Dezhou!"

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  (end of this chapter)