Chapter 89 Bloodstained Liangdang River
In the afternoon, Gao Jin received an investigation report that a part of the Mongolian army had gone to Xihe Prefecture.
Zhao Yulin immediately judged that the Mongolian army was going to advance eastward along the West Han River, intending to break through Qifang Pass and enter Hanzhong. He immediately sent a letter to Cao Youwen, asking Miao Gui to return to Mianzhou and lead his troops to the Baishui River to deploy defenses.
The enemy's scouts were scouring back and forth in the Liangdang River Valley, and the scouts of both sides were fighting and killing each other. The brothers on the hillside watched their comrades die in front of them without moving, and resolutely carried out the ambush mission.
The next day, the vanguard of the Mongolian army came out, with the Han army in front and the Mongolian army behind. A total of seven or eight thousand people went down the river. The long column could be seen from the beginning but not the end.
Seeing that the Mongolian army was behind, Zhao Yulin felt that the entrance to Guandi Temple was in danger and could be easily attacked by the enemy reinforcements from Liangdang.
Gao Jin said that he would do his best to get rid of the Haner Army first.
An hour later, the enemy vanguard entered the river mouth and the Liangdang ambush began. The Haner Army was actually the Han army that was conscripted and surrendered by the Mongolian army. The battle turned into a fight between Han people.
The Shenwei Army fired fierce arrows and the Haner Army's formation was suddenly in chaos. Then, violent explosions rang out throughout the river valley, and the Mongolian army was cut in half into several sections.
The Haner Army was quickly surrounded by the Shenwei Army. The soldiers threw rope mines and hand grenades at the enemy. This was the first time that the Mongolian Army encountered a blow from the Shenwei Army's firearms. After a period of panic, they gradually gathered in groups to resist.
The deputy captain of the Fourth Column, Feng Guiqi, personally went into battle, pushed the Eight Ox Crossbows and the Bed Crossbows to shoot at close range, fixed bayonets on the iron barrel cannons, and charged with the infantry. He quickly wiped out 3,000 Han'er troops.
However, the remaining 5,000 Mongolian regular troops were in trouble. Most of these steppe wolves had participated in the Western Expedition and had excellent archery skills. They calmly organized themselves into teams of ten or a hundred men and relied on the terrain to resist. The battle entered a stalemate stage.
At this time, the Mongolian army demolished houses to make weapons and moved downstream along the Jialing River to carry out a pincer attack.
Fortunately, the Shenwei Army had prepared for it in advance. Zhou Ping tied ropes into a net on the river and set up a camp to block the river and shoot enemies. He then placed countless small boats on both sides of the river in slow-flowing water to hunt down any fish that had escaped the net, thus foiling the Mongolian army's plan for a flank attack.
However, Tu Lei of Liangdang County learned that the front army had been attacked and immediately sent another 10,000 reinforcements southward. Li Dagui, who was guarding the Guandi Temple, quickly sent a signal to the command post.
Gao Jin said sternly, ordering them to hold on.
Zhao Yulin ordered all artillery fire to be used to chew through the enemy piece by piece.
The Shenwei Army's catapults continued to fire thunder bombs at the enemy camp, and the iron barrel cannons on the front line fired more and more explosive packs at the Mongolian army. The snake-shaped battlefield was gradually shortening.
At this moment, the fighting in the Guandi Temple area had become stalemate. The three catapults transported last night became the key to sniping the enemy. The Mongolian army's catapults were huge and difficult to move, and the Shenwei army's catapults attacked from high and low, and gained a lot of advantages.
However, the Mongolian army came up with a vicious trick and kept throwing fire bombs at the Guandi Temple, igniting the forest fire. The forest fire spread upwards and ignited the thunder bombs that had not been moved away in time, causing bursts of explosions on the Guandi Temple.
Zhao Yulin rushed to the artillery team's trebuchet array, glared at the captain of the artillery team with wide eyes, and asked him to find a way to destroy the Mongolian army's Huihui cannon.
The man pointed to the cliff on the right where the battle was still going on and said that as long as the catapults were set up, they could hit the enemy's artillery position. He immediately ordered the two nearest squadrons to help transport the artillery.
The soldiers ignored the enemy's arrows and focused on carrying away the catapult parts.
The second catapult at Guandi Temple was ignited and disintegrated by the Mongolian army, and the two armies started a hand-to-hand fight in the trenches. Seeing this, the First Corps located at the mouth of the pocket formation had to dispatch a battalion to support.
On this side, the Shenwei Army was still transporting artillery, and the Mongolian Army appeared on the left side of the river mouth. They bypassed the Liangdang West Gate and came over. The training officer Li Shichang took the initiative to volunteer to lead the harassment team that had just withdrawn to resist.
Zhao Yulin looked at them sternly and ordered them to put on cotton armor and helmets.
A thousand special forces team members, each carrying ten grenades, immediately set out. Gao Jin asked his brothers to follow closely. The soldiers used grenades to blow up the Mongolian defense line on the main position and rushed forward like a tidal wave.
After the last catapult in the Guandi Temple was destroyed by a forest fire, the first catapult was set up with great difficulty on the cliff. The Huihui artillery of the Mongolian army had just happily fired two rounds when the artillery of the Shenwei Army opened fire under the relay guidance of two small red flags and hit the Huihui artillery position of the Mongolian army in one test shot.
This time, the Shenwei Army also used incendiary bombs. Zhao Yulin's incendiary bombs were much more powerful than Ture's. After a few shells, they ignited the Mongolian army's incendiary bombs, and the Huihui cannons began to catch fire and explode.
When the second catapult on the cliff was installed and put into use, the initiative of Guandi Temple returned to Zhao Yulin.
Because the Mongolian army could not hit the catapults on the cliff, they had to retreat. Without the support of Hui artillery, the Mongolian army immediately fell into a passive position.
The Shenwei Army was quickly separating and encircling the remaining Mongolian troops, and some soldiers were already leading horses to clean up the battlefield.
Seeing that the situation was settled, Zhao Yulin asked Gao Jin to organize a retreat.
The engineers began to bury the mines that had just been rushed up on the road and in places where people could walk. The soldiers who came down walked past him, leading one or two war horses in their hands and smiling.
Zhao Yulin waved to everyone and asked them to retreat quickly.
Li Dagui came over with his right hand hanging on his shoulder. The man was covered in blood and looked like a living devil. Zhao Yulin went up to him and hugged him tightly, saying, "Brother, you are very powerful. Take a rest."
Da Kui returned the salute and led the team away.
In Liangdang County, Ture knew that the war was over. The Shenwei Army had ambushed him right under his nose and almost wiped out his vanguard. Together with the loss of reinforcements, the total number of casualties was no less than 10,000.
Most importantly, he lost a large number of Huihui cannons.
The god of war was in a daze.
There is actually another person in Hanzhong who can fight.
The Divine Army?
In the past, all he heard was making some strange things to earn his money.
Today, he actually opened his mouth and ate his men.
His youngest son said that the Shenwei Army's catapults were indeed powerful. They were not only lightweight but also easy to disassemble. Our Huihui cannons definitely could not be moved to such a high cliff.
Su Butai glared at the boy and said with interest that Zhao Qi'er was very good at hiding, and he had never heard that he had such weapons. That sweet potato also caused our men to suffer a lot. Most of the pursuing cavalry were killed or wounded, and dozens or even hundreds of soldiers were killed in the explosion while walking on the hillside when they returned.
The Mongolian army was stupid. They knew that there were no mines on the roads that had been blown up. They were worried and took the hillsides on both sides instead, which resulted in more mines being detonated.
Zhao Yulin rode his horse towards Qingyeyuan and saw a petite figure in the queue downwind. He walked closer and saw that it was Chen Chen. He dismounted and pulled the girl to the side of the road and yelled, "Why did you come to the battlefield? Do you know how dangerous it is?"
Seeing that she didn't say anything, Zhao Yulin continued to yell at her, saying that if anything happened to her, how would she explain to her father when she returned?
Chen Chen laughed cheerfully instead, saying what his father said: If you truly love someone, you should eat with him, sleep with him, and breathe with him.
So , here she comes.
Zhao Yulin pulled little Chen Chen into his arms and said, "You are stupid, what's so good about me?"
The little girl said she was happy and had already belonged to the boy.
He stopped talking, carried her onto the horse's back, and led the horse along with the team.
When they arrived at Qingyeyuan, Cao Youwen had just returned. He said that the enemy went down the river, and when they found that Liangdang was in a tight spot, they turned around and attacked Qifangguan fiercely. His brother Cao Youwan held his ground and refused to come out. The Mongolian army did not gain any advantage, so they retreated ten miles and set up camp.
Lao Cao asked him to go to Zhao Yan'na to lobby, after all, there were still more than 10,000 troops in Qingyeyuan. Lao Cao reported the battle situation to Zhao Yan'na, saying that Dasan Pass, Fengzhou, Liangdang and Tonggu had been lost, and Xihe was almost breached.
The troops must concentrate and coordinate their actions, otherwise they will be eaten up one by one by the Mongolian army.
Zhao Yan was already terrified by the dangers he reported, so he had no intention of fighting. He still insisted on Gui Ruyuan's order to defend but not fight.
Zhao Yulin said that he and General Cao's troops had killed more than 10,000 enemies, and the Mongolian army was estimated to have 40,000, and the main force was still there. Now General Cao was guarding Qifang Pass, and the Shenwei Army had to fight with the Mongolian Army and retreat to Xianren Pass. He was determined to fight with Wang Hancheng until the last man and die for the cause.
Lao Cao wanted to argue with Zhao Yan, but he didn't want to waste time, so he left with his men and went to Sha Jinping.
He told Gao Jin: This Shajinping was the battlefield where Wu Jie defended Shukou and defeated the Jin army. Today, let it become the cemetery where we killed the Mongolian army.
He saw that Lu Huacai was busy leading the Third Column to set up barricades, dig trenches, and install catapults and crossbows.
Zhao Yulin asked them to set up a row of crossbows outside the minefield in front, saying that the enemy was very smart. When they attacked tomorrow, they would drag a piece of wood on their horses' buttocks, and our mines would be destroyed by their two horses.
Miao Gui came back and told him that he was worried that there were too many , so he asked him to focus on the Jialing River and leave the defense of Qifang Pass to them brothers.
Zhao Yulin told Wang Hancheng that their armies had the same training method, and they should go to reinforce Qifang Pass, while Xianren Pass would be guarded by the Shenwei Army to ensure it would not be lost.
After Wang Hancheng declined several times, he was worried that if Qifang Pass was lost, the whole game would be lost, so he quickly led his team to reinforce.
Gao Jin believed that the battle to capture Jinping would definitely be a fierce one and required the deployment of firepower.
Zhao Yulin asked him to go to the scene with the captain of the artillery team, organize the cross fire, and fight a three-dimensional battle with coordinated infantry and artillery.
Zhou Ping came in and told him that he had brought fifty ships, but they were smaller.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said that the river was fast and shallow, so what was the point of having such a big boat?
Just keep an eye on the river surface, the key is to ensure transportation.
The Shenwei Army continued to build the battlefield fortress.
Liangdang County.
Subutai told Ture that they had lost 13,000 men and horses during the attack, and that they should attack Qifang Pass tonight to see if they could succeed.
Toure chuckled and said: Even the old general is not confident. The men of the grassland may not be invincible, but they win more than they lose. What is there to be afraid of?
