Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 701 Yingyang
"It's raining non-stop, and the Yingshui rose two feet overnight. It's probably not a good thing." In the Yingshui River Valley, the soldiers who took a break were chatting.

"I heard from the old man that there is a lot of rain every year. If there is more this year, it will be less next year. I think there will be a severe drought next year, and life in Henan will be difficult."

"I'm afraid it's not limited to Henan."

"If Henan can settle down, that's fine, I'm afraid it won't be."

"I don't think it can be decided, unless Zhu Quanzhong dies suddenly."

The sergeants' hakama slaves and Shu shirts were covered with mud and water, and they looked extremely tired. Although their morale was not high, it was still above the level.

This is the army that has been fighting all the year round.They have experienced too many killing fields and encountered many difficult scenes, and their endurance is relatively strong.To use an inappropriate analogy, the "animal attribute" is stronger-well, if you think they can endure hardships and give less rewards, you can try it.

There are still soldiers passing on the post road next to it, mostly auxiliary soldiers and Tutuan villagers.

Panting heavily, the mules and horses dragged the heavy carriage across the muddy post road and moved forward bit by bit.

There are either food, equipment, or other materials in the carriage, such as clay pots for cooking, picks for digging trenches, tarpaulin ropes for camping, tools for repairing equipment, whetstones, etc.It is impossible for the soldiers to carry these heavy supplies on their shoulders, and without them, it is the so-called "light soldiers rushing forward". A military master—usually the latter.

This road has not been traveled by too many people, and the road condition is not bad enough, but it is still daunting. This has caused the speed of more than 1 people in the entire army to be as slow as a snail.

It is often seen that a certain carriage is stuck in a mud pit, and then a group of people surround it, pulling and pushing the carriage to pull it out of the pit.

Sometimes a car rolls over on the side of the road, often causing a huge traffic jam, and the military officer in charge of logistics jumps in a hurry.

Who the hell came up with the idea of ​​a march in the rain?Stand up and let me wait and see?
"Let's go, let's go!" An officer walked over with a slip of his foot and waved.

The sergeants got up quickly, with numb expressions on their faces.He quickly checked the equipment around him, and then quickly assembled the team, looking like well-maintained killing machines.

Wang Yu was wearing a coir raincoat and walked by.A large group of personal soldiers followed behind him, and the coir raincoat was covered with mud spots.

Wang Yu's complexion was not very good, but he was in good spirits.While walking, he was even in the mood to joke: "If Zhang Guihou runs away, we can only catch the thousands of bandits at Taiguguan. Our Dingyuan army will go to the top of the city before the Tielin army, and let the commander give us Reward."

The sergeants laughed.

The Dingyuan army has been fighting for many years, and the inheritance has been continuous. The biggest loss since the formation of the army should be the attack on Luyang Pass. That time, almost half of the soldiers were lost, and their vitality was seriously injured.The second largest battle loss should be the loss of one-third of the soldiers when Longyou was recovered.Fortunately, the skeleton of the army is still there. After repeated drills after adding new recruits, the strength gradually recovered.

The strength of the Liang army on the front line of Taiguguan and Yingyang is also known now.Originally there were 600 defenders, but they were repeatedly attacked by the Shunyi army, Henan Fuzhou soldiers, and Luoyang Xiangyong, losing more than half of them.Afterwards, Zhu Hanbin, the tenth general of Luoyan Capital, led 4000 reinforcements there. It is not known where they were deployed, but a considerable number of them should have gone to the Guancheng to supplement the battle damage, and even rotate the original defenders.

But no matter what, there are only 6000 people. It is not difficult for him to ride over [-] steps and cooperate with the main force in the north to defeat the bandit army.

In Dengfeng County, [-] infantrymen of the Economic Strategy Army stayed behind.While securing the back road, they are also supporting the two directions of the north and the south, that is, the more than [-] strategic troops in Gaocheng County in the south and the continuous transport convoy from the Yuanguan Pass in the north.

In short, the entire war machine was mobilized, and it was extremely busy.

On April [-]th, after three days of trekking, the main force of the Dingyuan Army arrived a few miles east of Yingyang County.

A thousand soldiers in the vanguard, wearing armor and holding blades, stepped on the muddy muddy water, and under the patter of light rain, they climbed to the top of the city with only a few improvised and simple ladders, and then dispersed a dozen or so county soldiers. The city gate was opened.

The army then entered the city.

"Military envoy, just now Du Yuhou interrogated the bandit officer, and learned that the city was originally occupied by Zhu Hanbin. But a few days ago, he plundered mules, horses, grain and grass in the city, and then traveled southwest. He should have gone to Ruzhou .” The staff members knew what their lord was most concerned about, and came to report immediately.

"Zhu Hanbin is so courageous!" Wang Yu was amazed when he heard this.

He vaguely remembered that when he and Liang Jun were still fighting for supremacy on the Xiaohan Valley Road, let alone retreating without authorization, even those who returned after losing the battle had no good fruit, and most of them were beheaded by Zhu Quanzhong.

The Xuanwu army once attacked Hedong, and the two generals Li Xuan and Li Chongyin retreated without authorization and were also beheaded.

But in the Battle of Heyang, Zhang Shensi, who was defeated and fled, was not killed, but was demoted, and never became a general again.

This year, Zhang Guihou ran away resolutely, and Zhu Hanbin also ran away. Is Liang Renjun's discipline so lax?Not so.

Since the autumn of the second year of Dashun, this year is only the sixth year, Liang Jun has been beaten like this?

Wang Yu is also a veteran in the officialdom, and he replaced himself among the generals of the Xuanwu Army. After a long time, he could only sigh.

The war was unfavorable, the army was lost again and again, the prestige of the coach was damaged, and he gradually no longer had an absolute advantage in the game with the generals under his account.

Zhang Guihou ran away, can Zhu Quanzhong kill him?
His elder brother, Zhang Guiba, was the envoy of Yiqueguan Town to suppress soldiers and horses, and he was extremely brave.When fighting against the bandits, Zeng Zhong Liu Ya, this guy directly pulled out the arrows from his body, including the belt and flesh, reflected them back, and killed the bandits. His prestige in the army was very high.

The second brother, Zhang Guihou, is good at cavalry. He likes to fight against the enemy in front of the battle. , Repeatedly charged and killed the Yan army for more than [-] rounds, completely smashing the Yan army cavalry, Zhu Jin felt ashamed.

The third brother, Zhang Guibian, was a general in Bianzhou, and he was also a brave man. Although he was not as good as his two elder brothers, he had also accumulated a lot of military exploits.

These three brothers, like Huo Cun, Huo Yanwei, Ge Congzhou, Xie Yanzhang, Li Xuan, and Li Chongyin, were members of Shangrang's tribe.Moreover, they came from good backgrounds. Zhang Guiba's father was the county magistrate. The three of them studied poetry and prose since they were young, and honed their martial arts skills.

Does Zhu Quanzhong dare to kill Zhang Guihou now?I'm afraid I can't.The consequences of killing are very serious, maybe Yiqueguan will be demoted immediately.

So can Zhao Lin kill him?It seems impossible!
The Zhao family of Xuzhou was loyal to Bianzhou, even if they wanted to win over the Zhao family, they could not kill them.

It seems that only adopted son Zhu Hanbin can be killed, this idiot!Can you be the same as Zhao Lin and Zhang Guihou?

"Take a rest for two days. When the weather improves, I will personally lead the army to attack the city." Wang Yu sat down on the bed, feeling weak and his hands were shaking.

……

Outside of Ye County, the Weisheng army had already set up a large camp.

Ding Hui looked at the top of the city for a while, then went downstairs.

That old man in Tangzhou seems to have brought a lot of soldiers, probably around [-].In the Wanye Corridor, there are Tutuan villagers working tirelessly to transfer supplies.

These people are new, but should have been arranged long ago.A few days ago, they were not dispatched because of the heavy rain. As soon as the sun cleared, they appeared like ants, continuously transporting food and arrows to the front line.

Ding Hui didn't stay in the city for too long.After lunch, he left with his soldiers.

The road is muddy and horses cannot be ridden, so they can only walk back with difficulty.

Before leaving, Ding Hui was silent for a long time looking at the mountains in the south.

"Marshal, it's time to go." The general reminded.

"It's a pity." Ding Hui said something nonsensical, but all the confidantes present understood.

King Liang ordered the Youguo Army to shrink its forces, and the main force retreated to the Xiangcheng area, with Xuzhou as its back, before making further calculations.

What does this mean?It means giving up Ruzhou.

Ruzhou is too far to the west, and it is a semi-closed terrain. It is not a problem to say that it is half of the Yiluo Basin.From a military point of view, this large Yiluo Basin is actually very easy to defend, but the fatal problem is that it has only [-] households, which cannot even support one-tenth of the current [-] garrison.

Xia's army has already captured Luoyang, and after leaving the Yuanguan pass, they will go straight to Yangzhai, and then cover Xiangcheng, then they will be able to cut off the transportation lines of Yingshui and Rushui, and let the [-] troops chaos without fighting.And that's what they're doing now. It can be said that they have seriously threatened the retreat of the Youguo Army, and they mean to beat them like a turtle in a urn.

In fact, the Dante Society did not quite agree with King Liang's views.He felt that there was still room for improvement in the situation in Ruzhou.

If tens of thousands of soldiers and horses are mobilized to Xuzhou to help them stabilize this back road, then Ruzhou will still be impenetrable, and it will still be an iron fence separating Luoyang and Nanyang.

The only question is, will the tens of thousands of horses that have been put together temporarily be able to stay in Xuzhou?The answer may not be optimistic.Most of them are going to leave, it is impossible to wipe the buttocks of You Guojun all the time, this is the difficulty of insufficient troops.

Although all states in Xuanwu are now recruiting new troops and training them strictly, and Jiafang is also desperately rushing to manufacture equipment, but this will take time.Newly recruited people, even if they train for a year, can only defend the city, or serve as a second-line garrison. If they are in a field battle, they will be killed, which is embarrassing.

Therefore, this almost doomed Liang Jun to be in a dilemma of insufficient troops for a long time.Abandoning Ruzhou might alleviate this predicament a little, so what else is there to say?

"Let's go, let's all go!" Ding Hui turned his head back in frustration.

Without Ruzhou, what is he?Leading the military Jiedu envoy from afar?

After taking a deep breath and sorting out his thoughts, Ding Hui returned to reality and seriously thought about how to retreat.

It's a craft.Especially since the strength of the two sides has become so intertwined, it is more difficult to retreat.

King Liang has already sent troops south and west, and it will be much better if someone responds.But today's weather is a problem. It is raining heavily and the ministries are moving slowly. When the reinforcements arrive, it may not be the case.

Fortunately, this weather is also troublesome for Xia Thief, otherwise it would be really difficult.

(End of this chapter)