Riding and cutting the imperial pirates of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 420 The opponent is also improving
Compared with Xuzhou and Qingzhou, Yuzhou, as the land of the Central Plains, naturally received more attention in the eyes of the Han court.

For example, the construction of official roads and post stations has obviously increased a lot, especially the area close to Yingchuan County, which has always been the focus of infrastructure.

Between Yilu and Wuyang, there are four roads connecting each other. Extending from Wuyang, there are three post roads, which can go directly to Kunyang in the north, enter Nanyang County in Jingzhou in the west, and even pass through Dingling and Linzhou in the east. Ying two cities can reach the city of Xudu.

It's just that because it is located in a plain area, and the city itself is small and the walls are low, even if the strategic significance is very important, it is not the northern gateway of Yingchuan under normal circumstances. Mausoleum two big cities.

Gao Lan led the army to Nanton City first, then turned to the southwest and took another official road.

Although due to the war, the road has not been repaired for some years, and the weeds are overgrown, but it does not hinder the cavalry from marching.

In ancient China, when there was no cement and asphalt, the technology was backward. Compared with today, it is not easy to build roads, and the official roads built have certain size requirements.Generally, the size of roads in ancient times is divided into three types: "rail, step, and husband". For example, in the Seven Kingdoms during the Warring States Period, because the vehicles of the six countries were of different sizes, the roads built according to the vehicles and horses in each country were naturally different.

Until Zulong Hunyiyu, in order to further strengthen the centralization, it was required that "books are the same, and cars are on the same track", and the distance between the two wheels of the vehicles was unified to six feet, which further unified the size of the roads. The official road requires a width of about three feet. In order to facilitate drainage, there must be a roadbed higher than both sides of the road, as well as beautiful green pines and pavilions for people to rest.

Because Wang Zheng had spoken first, in order to speed up the march, Gao Lan and Yan Ran chose to follow the official path as much as possible. However, although Runan is still within Yuan Shu's sphere of influence, in order to avoid the possible presence of Cao Jun, this army is basically still Day and night.

Not many days later, they came to a tributary near the boiled water. At this time, they looked at each other seriously and smiled, knowing that they were not far from their destination.

Wushui is a tributary of the Yuanjiang River in the Dongting Lake water system in the Yangtze River Basin, and the source of Wuyang City's name is said to be the Yang of Xia Yu's city in Wushui (also known as Wushui).

The water in this tributary is not deep, and it can be crossed with a leather bag. Guo Jia has told them before that Gao Lan and others have long been prepared, and soon reached the east bank of the boiling water.

Wuyang is not a fortified city. According to Wangzheng Guo Jia's previous discussions, after Xiahou Dun took Kunyang, it is expected that there will not be too many soldiers and horses stationed here. It's because of this swollen river.

In this regard, Guo Jia, who was originally from Yingchuan, Yuzhou, gave extremely important opinions.

His hometown Yangzhai and Wuyang are not close to each other, ordinary people may not be able to understand, but Guo Jia is a genius, and has little ambition, even Qingzhou Beihai, which is thousands of miles away, is like a treasure to him. The mountains and rivers in Yuzhou, Naturally, this genius couldn't be more troubled.

Before Gao Lan and others set off, Guo Jia pointed to the map of Yingchuan and said that if the Tianjun wanted to forcefully cross the water, they could first select the place where the water was deep, mark it out, and then combine the information to select Cao Jun The weakest area of ​​defense, this is the first step.

After these words came out, everyone was stunned.

People and horses crossing the river usually come to the river and choose the way to cross the river. If the water is shallow, you can walk.If the water is deep, temporary pontoon bridges are built according to the depth of the river and the distance between the two sides of the river. Therefore, when crossing the river, the priority must always be to choose a place with a shallow water level. How can there be any reason to choose the easier and the harder?
Guo Jia shook his head and said, the key to this battle is not only to take down Wuyang, but also to take it down quickly, so that no fish slips through the net, so as not to startle the snake and alert Xiahou Dun in Kunyang.

If you want to go down to Wuyang quickly, how to cross the water is the key, but if you want to forcibly cross this river, the first consideration is not to let the Cao army on the other side discover it in advance, or even attack halfway through.

You all know that shallow water is better, and Cao Jun also knows that, so the defense force must be strongest where the water level is low. On the contrary, the deeper the water level, the more difficult it is for the enemy to cross the river, so the defense will be relaxed instead.

Therefore, if you want to rush through, you can't choose places with shallow water, but only places with deep water.

After listening to Guo Jia's strategy, both Gao Lan and Yan Ran were amazed, and Wang Zheng was even more generous in secret, Guo Jia, a ghost, is really always unexpected, doing the opposite in everything.

The subsequent second step is to determine the depth of the current water potential and the width and narrowness of the two sides of the selected location according to the changes in the water level of the Luan River in previous years, and build the pontoon bridge in advance. You can find some villages to buy and hurry up to make sure that there is one cavalry when crossing the river.

Among these three steps, the first and second steps are the most important.The third step is just an alternate measure.

And when Gao Lan led his army to the deepest part of the mile, he did not see any Cao Jun's sentry on the other side, and everyone once again admired Guo Jia in their hearts.

Since it was still in the afternoon, Gao Lan looked up at the sky. After thinking for a while, in order to be safe, he still did not choose to approach directly. Instead, he stopped ten miles away from the east bank and waited until night before quietly coming to the river. side.

I saw from a distance that Cao Jun on the other side had a bonfire, and there were piles of them about every seven or eight miles.Under the darkness of night, this continuous bonfire looks like a winding fire snake.On the side of the bonfire, a simple tent was built. Occasionally, soldiers of Cao Jun poked their heads out and watched.There was a cool breeze, and some movements could be faintly heard.

Gao Lan crouched on the bank and watched carefully. Not long after, Yan Ran also came over quietly from left and right.

"There are not many Cao troops guarding the bonfire on the left, about a dozen people." Yan Ran whispered: "The same is true on the right, it looks like a ten-man team, Captain Gao, how is your side? How many Cao troops are there?"

Gao Lan stretched out five fingers: "50 people."

"Ten people on the left, ten people on the right, and 50 people in the middle. Cao Jun's arrangement seems to be three bonfires and a centurion."

Yan Ran thought for a moment, and suggested: "There are only seventy people in total, so it's not difficult to deal with. Let's send people over quietly first, kill them, and then cross the river with the main force."

Gao Lan was more cautious, thought for a while and said: "Look, Captain Yan, there are horses, wolf dung, and water basins piled up by the campfire. Cao Jun's method of calling the police must be to burn wolf smoke during the day and turn off the campfire at night."

Speaking of this, Gao Lan looked up intently, wanting to take another look at the distance on the other side, but the night was dark and he couldn't see anything.

He pondered and made a judgment: "A hundred or ten people in a district can't guard the river. I dare to say that there are forty or fifty miles away, and thirty or twenty miles away. There must be a large army of them ambushing around here. As long as As soon as the signal for the coastal garrison is sent out, they can be killed at any time. Therefore, the vanguard we send must be extremely cautious, and we must not give Cao Jun a chance to put out the bonfire."

Yan Ran nodded in agreement.

The two of them observed patiently again, and found that each bonfire on the opposite bank still communicated with each other regularly. The time to communicate with each other was once every half an hour, and the way of communication was to knock a few gongs.

This time is enough.

In order to guarantee a hit, Gao Lan originally wanted his own guards to go up. After all, he is also one of the famous generals in Hebei, and the guards around him are naturally elites who have experienced many battles. When suggesting to use the Tianzhu camp arranged by Wang Zheng, Gao Lan shut up tactfully.

Although he didn't enter the system, he had faced the Tianzhu camp not long ago, so he naturally knew how powerful these people were.

Shortly thereafter, taking advantage of the darkness, fifty second-rank soldiers kept their bodies as low as possible and hid their bodies in the water. The teams floated across the opposite bank in batches with the help of their skin bags.

The soldiers were wearing armor and carrying knives, and there was a little noise from the south of the middle, but it was covered by the sound of the gurgling water, but it was not exposed.

Fighting each other in close quarters, using more strikes and fewer strikes, and a surprise attack, plus a group of second-tier soldiers, there is no suspense about the outcome. Even the more than 50 people in the Tianzhu Camp didn't even have a single victim, so they easily solved it. Cao Jun who was guarding the river.

This scene fell into Gao Lan's eyes, and he was amazed again. He even couldn't help thinking that not long ago, didn't he also lose to such a surprise attack from the Tianzhu Camp?

Can't help but feel a little lost.

But soon after he came to his senses, he secretly reminded himself that now he was in the same camp as Wang Zhoumu, and he no longer had to worry about meeting such elusive enemies, so he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

He glanced at Yan Ran, and sincerely extended his thumb: "It's really a miracle that Zhou Mu can train such a strong army!"

Once the most difficult problem is solved, the next one will be easy.

A pontoon bridge was pulled by several veterans and erected on the opposite bank, with cavalry in front and infantry behind.

More than [-] cavalrymen dismounted one by one, dragged their mounts, and crossed the river one after another.First of all, the old soldiers who crossed the river had already set up their guards. Someone specially assigned to calculate the time, and when the time came, they would knock a few gongs to keep in touch with other bonfires.

There are two pontoons in total.One of them had a little error, the bridge body was too long, and it took a little trouble.Fortunately, there was no delay in using it.Fortunately, it is too long. If it is short, there is no other way, so it can only be discarded.In any case, in the slow flow of night, more than 3000 people were orderly, and they all crossed the river within an hour.

Gao Lan left ten people behind and told them to continue to beat the gong on time and leave when it was almost dawn.Two fast horses were left for each of them to facilitate their pursuit of the team.

After passing the Wushui, Wuyang is less than a hundred miles away, and in terms of the confrontation between the two armies, it can be counted as close at hand.

Similarly, this also means that Gao Lan and others officially entered Yingchuan County and Xiahoudun's sphere of influence. Naturally, they dared not follow the official path. Late at night the next day, he had already appeared outside Wuyang City.

After several days of rapid marching, the men and horses were exhausted, and it was obviously impossible to launch an attack immediately.Even if the soldiers can bear it, the horses can't bear it.War horses have no impact, and the power of cavalry is reduced by more than half.

The two immediately held a short military discussion, and unanimously decided to rest for two hours and launch a surprise attack at five o'clock.

So far, the entire raid against Wuyang has been extremely smooth, just like the countless war operations of the Heavenly Army in the past.

However, the opponent this time is still somewhat different after all.

At four o'clock that night.

The two people who were sleeping in the tent suddenly received an urgent report that the sentry soldiers encountered Cao Jun's night sentry!

It was a coincidence that the location of Gao Lan and other garrisons was a forest overgrown with vines, and the outer edge of the forest was covered with low shrubs.

And just in front of a cup of tea, on both sides of the bushes, the soldiers of the Celestial Army who were on guard and the guards of Cao Jun who were patrolling the bushes had a face-to-face meeting!
Caught off guard, both sides froze on the spot, the moonlight reflected their expressions on each other, as if they were the same as a mirror, they were both surprised, confused, and horrified.
There is also a bit of inexplicable.

The next moment, Cao Jun came back to his senses first, and the night sentry turned his horse and left, but the horseshoe just lifted up, and the heavenly army who came back to his senses also made a decisive decision. Falling to the ground, screams pierced the silent night.

It was as if the silver bottle was broken and water was pouring out, and the remaining ten or so stunned enemies and the enemy reacted at the same time.Half of the night whistles walked backwards, and half of the night whistles rushed forward.Three Xuzhou soldiers, one ran to call for help, two jumped over the bushes to avoid the rushing enemies, and shot arrows at the fleeing night sentries.

In the forest at night, from stillness to movement, it is a mess, and people are screaming everywhere.

Gao Lan was sleeping on the ground to the left. He woke up from his sleep, subconsciously drew out his long sword, and got on his horse. Before he opened his eyes, he had already run tens of meters away.Without the control of the brain at all, after years of military career, all these have long since become his instinctive actions.

"what happened?"

"Master, we have encountered an enemy!"

"Quickly inform Colonel Yan!"

Gao Lan came to his senses completely, and saw the fleeing night whistle gradually go away.Dozens of awakened cavalry rode their horses in pursuit.Helplessly, there are vines and bushes covering it, so they can't run out directly, and have to make a detour, which delays time, and it seems that they can't catch up.

"Where's the archer? Shoot me!"

Immediately, dozens of crossbow bolts were shot out, but after all, the distance was too far, only two or three of them were shot down, and they escaped quickly and disappeared out of sight.

After some encounters, all the three sentries on the side of the Tian army were killed in battle, and the ten night sentries on the side of the Cao army, except for the two who escaped, six died and two were captured.

After asking about the situation, Gao Lan's gloomy face was about to drip water.

At this time, Yan Ran also rode his horse and rushed to him, his expression was [-]% solemn, and the rest was [-]% unbelievable:
"How come Cao Jun still arranges sentry cavalry at night?"

no wonder he was so surprised
Since the Wangzheng Rebellion, among all the powerful enemies that the Heavenly Army has encountered, no one has been vigilant to this point!
"This is not the time to talk about this!"

Gao Lan's face sank like water, and he said coldly: "Since it has been exposed, there is no further delay."

"Order all the ministries, the infantry to form an array, the cavalry to mount their horses, and rush to attack the city immediately!"

"Here!"

(End of this chapter)