Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 422 The Soldier's Solution

"General Hao, why bother?" On the north bank of the Dahe River, Feng Ba persuaded with some puzzlement: "We only have so much capital on hand. Once we lose it all, why do you start from the team? At this age, why bother to work so hard?" ?”

More than 3000 of them have come to the other side of Shanzhou.

According to the plan made by Ge Congzhou in advance, he will wait for the opportunity to wade south to Shaanxi and attack the food road of the Shuofang army.

If the food road is cut off, even if there is still food in the camp, morale will be frustrated. Unless the food road is reopened, it may recover.

Hao Zhenwei didn't answer, but asked instead: "General Feng is from the Zhaoyi Army, so why didn't the King of Dongping invite Chengde Wang Rong and Youzhou Li Kuangwei to attack Hedong together?"

These two square towns have excellent cavalry traditions and many soldiers and horses, especially Chengde Town.

Hao Zhenwei vaguely remembered that Cheng Dezhen inherited most of the cavalry talents from An Shi's troops.

During Li Baochen's period, there were fourteen generals in the left chamber, five generals on foot and nine generals on cavalry; eleven generals on the right chamber, two generals on foot and nine generals on cavalry.

When Li Xiaozhong was the governor of Yizhou, Li Baochen generously selected [-] elite riders for him to defend Youzhou.

This kind of cavalry tradition, Ma Zheng has also done very well, and there are cavalry techniques and tactics handed down from generation to generation. Thousands of riders", Youzhou also has tens of thousands of riders.Such overwhelming cavalry, why not let them participate in the battle?
"The king of Dongping County must have sent his envoys away long ago. Wang Rong may not be willing to send troops. It is very likely that Li Kuangwei will send troops to attack Yuzhou. This place is occupied by the Hedong army. It really is a stick in the throat." After thinking about it, Feng Ba said, Said: "It's just that Youzhou has a large number of cavalry, which is almost two or three times that of Li Ke's. It may not be possible to win."

Chengde Town's "[-] cavalry" is of course too exaggerated, it is impossible to really have [-] cavalry.One hundred thousand horses is about the same. The real number of cavalry is [-], and most of the rest are infantry who ride on horseback and dismount to fight.

But these two families combined [-] to [-] cavalry, tens of thousands of mounted infantry, and tens of thousands of foot infantry. They fought on the Hebei Plain, but they were defeated by Li Keyong.

In Chengde Town, 2 people were captured and beheaded, so much so that Li Keyong never forgot to attack Chengde. This is a demonstration of confidence.

Before capturing Datong Town, the cavalry that Li Ke used was probably less than a fraction of Chengde and Youzhou combined, and even Helian Duo in Datong could not move tens of thousands of cavalry. Wanqi has more troops than Li Keyong's entire army, but he has been defeated many times, and the grain road of the Hedong Army has never been cut off.In other words, it was interrupted for a short time, but it did not affect his infantry attacking the enemy to win.

Should it be said that the infantry used by Li Ke are tough and durable, and the guards are well-equipped, or are these cavalry not good?

Li Keyong was intercepted by more cavalry than his entire army.Li Keyong, who got the grassland and his cavalry surged, never succeeded in intercepting Zhu Quanzhong's grain road, but was beaten violently by Zhu Quanzhong's infantry. Naturally, there is a reason for this.

Even in the Later Jin Dynasty, more than [-] Khitan cavalry were beaten back.

At that time, the amount of horses maintained in the Central Plains had shrunk sharply compared to when the feudal towns were separated in the late Tang Dynasty. There were not many horses in Chengde Town, and the Central Plains were almost all infantry. Why didn't the Khitans use wolf pack tactics to defeat these infantry?The infantry in the late Jin Dynasty, because of the collapse of the economy and the decrease in population, their salaries, equipment, and training were all inferior to those in the late Tang Dynasty when the feudal towns fought each other.

Isn't the Great Plains of Henan and Hebei also the most suitable for Khitan cavalry?
For this reason, Marshal Shao didn't understand deeply when he was in the extremely empty northwest, but now he has understood part of the mystery.

Zhang Quanyi could have prevented Xia Jun cavalry from walking freely in Henan Mansion, but he was not ready.

"Whether you can win or not, sending troops is useful. Wang Rong was afraid of being beaten, but Li Kuangwei didn't. Didn't he defeat An Jinjun the year before last?" Hao Zhenwei said unconvinced: "It's been a town for hundreds of years, and the soldiers are fully equipped. , the sergeant honed his skills day and night, who is worse than the other?"

"As I said, most of Youzhou Town will send troops, but Wang Rong won't." Feng Ba was very impatient with Hao Zhenwei, and said angrily, "But what does this have to do with me? Cross the river from the sun pontoon bridge, in case you encounter the main force of the Xia thieves , we all die without a place to bury us."

"If you don't go, I'll go!" Hao Zhenwei snorted coldly, climbed up a boulder, and stared carefully at the crossing of the pontoon bridge.

Their current location is Pinglu County, a county of Shanguo Town on the north bank of the river.Sun Pontoon Bridge, the northern end is Pinglu, and the southern end is Shancheng.

They did not dare to get too close to the northern end of the floating bridge.

The goddamn Xia thief not only drove away the Shanguo sailors guarding the pontoon bridge and ferry, but even sent soldiers to guard the north bank of the river, so they were very vigilant.

But it seems that there are very few soldiers!
"Heaven help me!" Hao Zhenwei said with a low smile, "There are not even scouts, and there are only some security sergeants at the north shore ferry, so I should attack."

After all, he left quietly, ready to go back to rectify the troops.

……

Zhe Silun immediately received a report that a brigade of the Bian army was coming here.

At this time, he happened to be patrolling the north bank, and there were only [-] guards at the ferry, which really only served as a guard.

On the south bank, there are only three hundred soldiers.There are too many places to defend, and he only has [-] infantry, but he has to defend the entire area along the Shanguo River, which is not enough troops.

"Yanei, go back to the south bank, let's burn down the pontoon bridge." The north bank garrison general suggested.

"It's not easy to build this bridge. You may want to keep it, it's very useful." Zhe Silun was a little bit reluctant, but he still said: "Go and pile up firewood first, hide it, don't let people peep from afar Get false and true. If there is something wrong, pour oil and set fire to the bridge."

"Please leave the Yamen first." The general said.

"No more retreat!" Zhe Silun said firmly: "I'll go there, give me a hundred people. Let the soldiers from the south bank come over and help you wait for the defense."

Zhesilun refers to the mountains northwest of the ferry.

The garrison general was dumbfounded, and said: "Yanei, in case the bandits attack..."

"The commander-in-chief sent an envoy to send a message. More than [-] riders with silver guns have crossed the Hebei and searched all the way west. In Hebei, it is not that dangerous. It's a big deal. I will flee to the west by myself. Don't worry." Zhe Silun resolutely He said, "how can you be willing to do some hard work when you send troops this time?"

These words are actually Zhe Silun's true inner thoughts.

Zhe Siyu, the envoy of the cavalry army, is a descendant of the Zhe family. What is his status now?
He is such a son of Zheshi, can he compare with others?

"Ya Nei..." The garrison general is also a child of the Zhe family, and he still needs to be persuaded.

But Zhe Silun had already made up his mind, and immediately ordered a hundred people, and brought a lot of things and only a dozen horses, and hurried to the other side of the mountain.

After receiving the news, the 200 guards on the south bank of the river immediately crossed the river and joined the [-] guards under the general's command.

Of course, the cohesion of soldiers from Zhejia is very high.

When fighting, lead each other to pass arrows, fight together, advance and retreat together.

500 people are on the north bank, and everyone is not planning to escape, and the Yamen have not escaped, so why are you running?

Hao Zhenwei rode on the horse excitedly, Feng Ba had a face of reluctance and hesitation.

There are more than 3000 paces behind, and the queue is far away, but it is still neat.

They had already seen the ferry from afar.

Hao Zhenwei and Feng Ba gave the order to stop and started forming a team.

"Stop!" Feng Ba suddenly reached out to stop the army that was about to move out.

"Why stop?" Hao Zhenwei said angrily.

"General Hao." Feng Ba rarely looked at Hao Zhenwei sincerely, and said in a serious tone: "You and I are both foreign generals in the Bian army, with no root or foundation. What I said before was not a joke, Kang Yanxiao defected to Bianzhou , Dongping County King only asked him to start from the team. If you and I lose the army, it would be good to start from the team. Don’t you hear about Li Xuan and Li Chongyin?"

Li Xuan and Li Chongyin, one is a cavalry general and the other is a step general. Like Ge Congzhou, they are both Shangrang's old troops.

When they surrendered to Zhu Quanzhong, they had a high status and many soldiers and horses, so they were a little arrogant.At that time, Quanzhong had few soldiers, and he was not happy in his heart, but he pretended to be generous on the surface, and there were many rewards.

But what now?
Last year when Li Keyong was attacked, Deng Jiyun was captured, and all the soldiers and horses retreated, but the others were fine, but the second Li was beheaded by Zhu Quanzhong.

The king of Dongping County is magnanimous on the surface, but he is not generous on the inside.

"Er Li was killed, so what?" Hao Zhenwei's heart trembled, but he still asked patiently.

"Look at the mountain over there." Feng Ba pointed to the mountain range to the northwest of the ferry, there were more than ten flags hidden in it, and you couldn't see it unless you looked carefully.

Hao Zhenwei looked at it for a long time, and he could see it, but he still hesitated.

"Look over there again, sir." Feng Ba pointed again, and said: "The art of war says 'the bird rises, and the bird falls,' and 'the beast terrorizes, and the beast falls'. Birds do not enter the forest, there must be ambushes. Beasts run away in fright. Going out of the forest, there must be soldiers walking in the mountains, trying to detour to the rear of our army."

"Let's look at the ferry again." Feng Ba became more confident as he spoke, and said, "The Art of War says that 'those who challenge the enemy from a distance will enter if they want to be attacked'."

At the ferry, the defenders from the south bank brought a few horses. At this time, they selected some brave men, galloped back and forth, and shot arrows here, provoking endlessly.

"I have been in the army for 15 years, and this is what someone who knows the soldier knows." Feng Ba looked at Hao Zhenwei and said in a concluding tone.

Hao Zhenwei's face darkened.You have been in the army for 15 years and you have "knowledge soldiers", and I have also served as a defense envoy.

But Feng Ba's words were indeed very reasonable, they couldn't afford to lose.

Shao bandits always had a large number of troops in battle, and they were well protected. How could such an important ferry not be heavily defended?
You thief, you want to take away my last bit of money!
Hao Zhenwei, who had suffered several losses, became more and more angry as he thought about it, and he was very grateful.

"Let's retreat and find a ferry." He said unwillingly.

"It's time to retreat." Feng Ba breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Ge Congzhou ordered me to cross the river and go down the river. He said that his father and son would lead the army to Erwei Mountain and come out from the mountain in the south of Shanzhou. No trace. Why should I wait for him to take chestnuts out of the fire?"

Hao Zhenwei nodded, and the two restrained the troops and retreated quietly.

On the way back to the army, the atmosphere was a bit depressed, and everyone was reluctant to talk.

At this moment, a cavalry army was marching rapidly westward more than ten miles to the east of them.

(End of this chapter)