Chapter 70: You Will Lose Everything
Zhu Congwen didn't care. He was confident that the enemy still didn't understand the strength of the Shenwei Army. Twenty thousand people? Obviously, they couldn't take Xinshi. The Shenwei Army itself had more than 20,000 people. They either didn't understand the situation or underestimated our Shenwei Army.
Zhao Yulin also encouraged everyone in a very relaxed manner, saying that there was no need to be afraid. Dali firstly did not understand us, and secondly underestimated us. They were destined to lose everything in this gamble.
Under the cover of night, the navy's engineers arrived at Shika, upstream of the Mahu River, where the Shika River merges into the Jinsha River, forming a relatively wide river surface and the water flow slowed down a lot.
Under the cover of night, the engineers worked hard to install the new type of river-blocking cable net invented by Zhao Yulin. With the good stuff of earth cement, the huge winch he designed could easily obtain a solid foundation...
At the Lin'an Palace, the envoy met the emperor who was writing with a brush and reported to him that the Shenwei Army of Yibin had angered the Dali Kingdom and that they were going to take back Zhenwu Mountain by force.
In fact, the emperor had already received secret reports from Jiazhou and Chen Yun. Dali was on the verge of a war with the Shenwei Army because of taxes.
But he was like an old monk in meditation, motionless.
Because the emperor had such a judgment, Dali was his vassal state, and at most he could occupy Zhenwu Mountain, but he would never dare to go further and come to Yibin to start a war.
The eunuchs in charge were on good terms with the envoys, and they had been telling him that Zhao Yulin had the ambition to be emperor, and that three people made a tiger. The emperor saw that Zhao Yulin's business was growing bigger and bigger, and his team was also growing bigger, so he began to worry about Zhao Yulin.
So he remained calm, just wanting to see how powerful this newly emerged Divine Might Army was.
He put down his brush, turned around and sat down, asking the envoy what to do.
The prime minister is old and his health these were nothing. He could just do it with a few hums in bed.
Now that the emperor is increasingly interested in ruling the country himself and the issue involves diplomatic relations between the two countries, he came to the palace.
The envoy said tremblingly that he should immediately send a special envoy to reprimand Zhao Yulin of the Shenwei Army and order him to retreat.
The emperor asked him, where is the majesty of our country?
The envoy realized that he had clearly exceeded his authority in front of the emperor and asked for the emperor's instructions.
The emperor took a sip of tea and said that what the Shenwei Army did in the past was tacitly approved by the court. At the very least, it belonged to the Song Dynasty. He ordered Jiazhou to deal with it well and never allow Dali to invade. He reprimanded the king of Dali and asked them to sit down and discuss.
The emperor only cared about getting his work done in Jiazhou and didn't take Dali's intrusion seriously at all.
He must have hoped that Dali would come to fight a battle to test the strength of the Shenwei Army. It would be great if they won, as it would enhance the prestige of our Song Dynasty and would definitely help expand our territory.
It doesn't matter if he loses. He doesn't consider the Shenwei Army as his soldiers at all. It's just a chance for him to get rid of this guy who has ambitions to be an emperor. Hehe.
The prime minister was smart. Judging from the emperor's reaction, he was trying to kill someone with a borrowed knife, which showed that the people he had placed around the emperor had worked. The old man was in a good mood and took his leave.
Zhao Yulin had no idea of Lin'an's plan. He was still making intensive preparations for war in Xinshi Town.
However, the battle first started in the middle.
In order to prevent the Dali soldiers from killing innocent people, the Fire Phoenix Army told the tribes not to resist and to accept Dali's orders. The Dali soldiers in the middle route quickly advanced to Daping, 50 miles away from Xinshi Town.
The Fire Phoenix deployed its defenses at Lion Rock and managed to hold off the enemy's attacks for three days using only bows and crossbows.
These places are inconvenient for transportation and difficult to move. Gao Yuxiang, the commander of the Dali army, saw that the central route attack was blocked, and urgently ordered the eastern route army to speed up the advance to attract the Shenwei army to disperse its forces.
His main force slowly moved northward along the Jinsha River.
This guy is a veteran on the battlefield and is very cautious in his moves.
His Eastern Army, led by a brave general named Chai Bao, moved forward rapidly. The next day, it reached the Daping line and took a detour to continue its attack on Xinshi.
As the enemy was about to advance deep into the hinterland, the situation on the battlefield suddenly became dangerous.
Lei Manzi was getting restless and cursed the damned southern barbarians for being as slow as a snail. He didn't know when they would be able to enter the position and he was afraid that the Ninth Brigade would not be able to hold on any longer.
Zhao Yulin said that the enemies in the east were too arrogant and they could be eliminated first and then deal with Gao Yuxiang.
Zhu Congwen believed that he only needed three thousand soldiers to stop the enemy.
Zhao Yulin ordered Miao Gui to lead 5,000 soldiers and horses to march quickly to the east, annihilate the enemy, sweep across the middle road, and then return to participate in the battle of the west.
However, he was a little worried and told Zhu Congwen to be careful, because once the battle in the east started, the enemy in the west would most likely launch an attack.
Zhao Yulin followed Miao Gui and rushed to the east road overnight.
When I arrived at the battlefield at dawn the next day, I saw the Fire Phoenix, who looked tired, but was actually wearing a red cloak.
Zhao Yulin was furious and yelled that she was crazy and was not afraid of the enemy's targeted elimination of her.
Fenghuang was still enjoying looking at him and smiling, so Miao Gui quickly asked Fenghuang to explain the situation.
Fire Phoenix and her team fought and retreated, but the enemy kept biting them from behind and refused to let go. This kind of close combat was very disadvantageous to Phoenix, and the casualties were too great.
Zhao Yulin said he would not leave, so he used all his weapons, chose a good terrain and destroyed the opponent.
Feng Guiqi said happily that he was waiting for him to say this.
Fenghuang said that there was a big canyon in front of them. The enemy rushed out and entered the three-way intersection, which was the key point to the north and west. The soldiers had no one to rely on, so if they wanted to retreat, they had to go ten miles behind. No one wanted to retreat anymore.
Miao Gui said that the brothers from the 9th and 10th brigades were already exhausted, so he asked them to snipe the enemy, while Fenghuang would lead the team to outflank the enemy and annihilate them.
Fenghuang disagreed, saying that they had been holding out for so long and felt too frustrated, so they wanted to face the enemy and have a head-on fight.
Zhao Yulin told them not to fight anymore. Fenghuang and the others were familiar with the enemy, so he asked them to snipe. Miao Gui left a thousand soldiers to assist and immediately led the main force to make a roundabout way.
Feng Guiqi accompanied him to the front line for observation. He said that this group of enemies was tired of being harassed by them yesterday and had not come out to attack yet.
Zhao Yulin only saw the enemy's guard posts but no enemy troops. He thought the enemy must have some goods, but he wondered what they were preparing.
He asked Fenghuang where our catapults were and whether they should be set up.
Fenghuang told him that there was only the iron barrel cannon here, and the catapult was too heavy and was still five miles away, but was already being transported here.
At this time, a team leader came to report that no grain had been collected, so the young chief gave him two hundred grain bags.
Fenghuang was furious and cursed the chief for rebelling and not giving food. It was not as if the Shenwei Army had not given them silver.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said that this was normal. If we were defeated, they would be from Dali and would not give you food. Wouldn't that be aiding the enemy?
He said that he had just brought some food with him, and everyone should save it to last for one day. After defeating the current enemy, they were afraid that they would not be able to find food.
The brothers were now motivated, and Zhao Yulin asked the soldiers to fill their empty bags with soil and build the trench as high and wide as possible.
Near noon, there was finally movement at the mountain pass, which scared Phoenix. Through the telescope, she saw that the Dali soldiers had pushed out two large catapults.
In Zhao Yulin's eyes, it was just an outdated antique equipment, but on this battlefield it was the ultimate weapon for the infantry. The stone bullets thrown by this catapult were enough to knock down the battlements of the city wall. What were ordinary trenches compared to it?
Zhao Yulin shouted and asked where our catapult was.
Where is our trebuchet?
Feng Guiqi shouted at the soldiers to dig trenches and fill bags of sand and gravel, but it was of no avail.
Dali's catapults started working, and one shot hit the back of the iron barrel cannon position. After another calibration shot, the barrel cannon position of the Shenwei Army was scattered, and the artillery could only stay in the bunker.
The two trenches were also shattered by stone bullets, and the soldiers could only lie in the trenches to hide.
Fenghuang was about to rush forward to give orders, but Zhao Yulin grabbed her in his arms and tore off her red cloak in a few seconds. He said, "If we die, we die together," and pushed her behind him.
The enemy launched a charge. Zhao Yulin raised his 800 million baton and shouted, "Go, everyone, go to the front line." Fan Zheng took a tin microphone to encourage the soldiers, shouting, "The Third Young Master has arrived! Brothers, fight hard."
Then, shouts of "The Third Young Master is coming" filled , and the morale of the Shenwei Army was greatly boosted. The powerful arrows from the Shenbi crossbows flew densely towards the enemy group. The iron barrel cannons at the back also started working.
The Dali soldiers' charge was blocked and they retreated.
Chai Baode reported that the enemy's tenacious sniping attack had failed. He found it a little unbelievable. Every time he attacked the Shenwei Army before, they would run away. But today, a super cannon was set up, and the enemy still held on. Why didn't they run away?
What is going on?
A lieutenant colonel ran in and told him that the retreating brothers said that the enemy position was shouting "The Third Young Master is here." It should be that the commander of their Shenwei Army, Zhao Yulin, personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, otherwise, why would the enemy suddenly become stronger?
When Chai Bao heard this, he was overjoyed and immediately sent a pigeon to send a message to General Gao Yuxiang: the enemy's main force was moving eastward, and he wanted to capture Zhao Yulin alive.
Then he went to the mountain pass to check in person. As expected, half of the heads were shaking in the dilapidated Shenwei Army position. Chai Bao ordered another charge, and those who did not advance would be beheaded.
Dali's two catapults started working again, and the Shenwei Army immediately lay down and hid. Zhao Yulin reached out and pinched the Fire Phoenix's nose and said, "Remember, some things cannot be considered cumbersome and must be carried with you."
The Shenwei Army's catapults are small, easy to disassemble and install, and ten times more advanced than Dali's. If they were present, they would only need to launch small thunder bombs to immediately eliminate Dali's antique catapults' right to speak. Would they still need to avoid artillery fire like a turtle?
Fire Phoenix said with a shameful look on her face that she felt sorry for her dead brother.
Zhao Yulin squeezed her little hand, stared straight ahead and stopped talking.
Later, the enemy launched another charge. This time, Dali almost waited until their soldiers were about to rush into the Shenwei Army's position before stopping the shelling. Soldiers from both sides were almost firing arrows under their noses.
After the remaining iron barrel cannons resumed firing, they immediately blocked the Dali soldiers coming up from behind, and the position was quickly stabilized. However, Dali's catapults began to concentrate their fire on the artillery positions of the Shenwei Army, and the number of barrel cannons still firing decreased.
A stone bullet hit the pile of explosive packs, and there was a loud bang behind Zhao Yulin, and mud flew onto his back.
Phoenix was furious. She stood up and was about to lead her men to charge forward, but a stray arrow hit her.
The phoenix fell down like a kite with its string cut.
