Turbulent Times Chapter 1618: The 100,000 troops of Liang State

In the fifteenth year of Daye, on February 19th, Zhu Can's army quickly assembled in Hanzhong County.

On February 21st, Zhu Can assembled an army of 100,000 and marched towards Champion County in a mighty manner. It seemed that he was desperate to defeat Wagangjie led by Xu Shiji in a single battle and take back Champion County.

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Covered by night, in Champion County, the Wagang Camp of the Far East Army was silent, only the figures of patrolling sentries walking in line.

The big tent of the Chinese army is still brightly lit, the coach Xu Shiji is discussing the military situation with Cheng Yaojin, Shen Guang, Xie Yingdeng, Chen Xiaogou and others.

In this afternoon, Shen Guang sent Xu Shiji an eagle letter from Champion County, convinced that Zhu Can was mobilizing an army of 100,000 to go south for a decisive battle.

In the information that came along with it, there was also news that Zhu Can's army was demoralized and a large number of soldiers fled. This shows that the ideological struggle that the Far Eastern Army has been promoting has achieved very good results. Some things done by the county's Military Intelligence Office, Xiaoyu Theater and other forces have achieved fruitful results.

Of course, the bigger reason for this is that Xu Shiji occupied the champion county with lightning speed, which hit Zhu Can's weakest point.

"It's impossible for Zhu Can not to know the situation of his own army, and it's impossible not to know how powerful our Wagang camp is. Even if he has 40,000 more troops than us, he will definitely not be able to beat us, but he still led his troops south and took the initiative. Hitting us, will this act be fraudulent?" Cheng Yaojin asked with a frown.

"The information we have obtained in recent days shows that Zhu Can is going crazy, so it is possible for him to take any impulsive decision..." Shen Guang thought for a while and replied, but he remembered the past Zhu Can in the intelligence information. Charm's performance on the battlefield is somewhat uncertain about what she said.

Xu Shiji sneered and said, "Although we haven't received any definite information, it is conceivable that Li Shimin or Zhu Can have already sent envoys to meet with the other party and reached a certain deal secretly. Afterwards, Zhu Can joined Li Yuan."

But Shen Guang shook his head and said: "Our military intelligence office has conducted detailed analysis and research on Zhu Can, and he will never serve anyone."

Shen Guang said so firmly that Xu Shiji couldn't help frowning, but after thinking about it for a moment, he said, "Maybe Zhu Can just wants to use a borrowed knife to kill someone."

Shen Guang thought for a while, agreed with Xu Shiji's guess, nodded and said: "When your Wagang camp is fighting Zhu Can, I will arrange people to keep an eye on Li Shimin's troops. As long as Li Shimin's army If there is any change, our people will know it immediately, and tell General Xu with a flying eagle that we will never be ambushed by Li Shimin and Zhu Can."

Xu Shiji recalled that Wang Junlin's order specifically mentioned that he must be cautious when dealing with Li Shimin and attach great importance to it, so he vaguely felt that this matter was not so simple, but he did not doubt the ability of the spy of the Military Intelligence Office at all. If there is any change in Li Shimin's army, it will be difficult to escape the eyes of the spies of the Military Intelligence Bureau. What's more, he has done enough homework before coming to Sichuan. How could he not know how many troops there are in Champion County and Hanzhong County?

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Just as the news sent in advance by the spies of the Military Intelligence Office said, the army led by Zhu Can really came, and they came straight to Champion County in such a aggressive manner.

Xu Shiji was naturally prepared for this, but he didn't push all the horses up to meet the enemy. He first ordered Xie Yingdeng to lead 10,000 infantry to attack Qushi City, an important town in the south of Hanzhong County, and then ordered Cheng Yaojin to lead 20,000 cavalry to attack the 100,000 Zhu's army head-on.

And Xu Shiji led 10,000 cavalry himself, and set up a camp 30 miles north of Qushi City to support him.

The other 20,000 infantry were stationed in the county towns of Devil Pass and Champion County, as well as several county towns.

After the 20,000 people of the Wagang Battalion were stationed in the city, their strength was obviously insufficient, but Xu Shiji still let 10,000 infantrymen attack Qushi City. While this move is intriguing, it can also be seen that he has confidence in his troops and the strength of the Zhu family army. Of course, there may also be the meaning of fishing. After all, there are too many soldiers and horses, how can the enemy take the bait.

With Xu Shiji's order, the Wagang camp, which had been prepared for a long time, started to move.

The camp was filled with the neighing of war horses, the sound of soldiers sharpening their knives, and the hurried and chaotic footsteps of the heralds, yelling and cursing loudly. hair.

Shen Guang also followed the camp, and the masters of the Military Intelligence Department followed him to leave the camp. After thinking about it for a while, he didn't follow Cheng Yaojin to meet the enemy, but followed Xu Shiji.

Riding on the horse, Shen Guang looked at Xu Shiji who was marching ahead without saying a word, frowning

Holding tightly, I don't know what's on my mind.

The march was silent for a long time, and next to him was Song Gongliang, the head of the Military Intelligence Office in Sichuan and Shu. ..."

Shen Guang came back to his senses, shook his head and smiled: "No, you think too much, with the current strength of the Wagang Camp, coupled with our secret manpower, especially the first-time information, it is impossible to fail .”

"But my subordinates have been frowning when they see the adults..." Song Gongliang mumbled.

Shen Guang thought for a moment, then slowly said: "What I'm worried about is that Xu Shiji deliberately left 10,000 cavalry to support him. This is obviously worried about special circumstances. I don't know why Xu Shiji did this, but I know he is not I don’t believe in our Military Intelligence Office, so there must be a reason for Xu Shiji, but I still can’t figure out what the reason is…”

Song Gongliang was taken aback when he heard the words, and said: "Maybe General Xu has always used troops safely."

Shen Guang's eyes flashed a little unpredictable, and then slowly said: "What kind of person is Zhu Can? We have conducted in-depth analysis and research on his information, no matter how many things he usually does Crazy, but you have never lost your mind on the battlefield, so put yourself in your shoes and think about it, if you were Zhu Can, knowing that the morale of your men and horses was weak, and the Far East Army was powerful, how would you choose? Do you hesitate to meet it head-on?"

Song Gongliang shook his head: "If my subordinates were Zhu Can, I would definitely not choose this way. Our Far Eastern Army has always been invincible and invincible. Even though the Wagang Battalion was newly established, the victory of the Champion County has proved its combat strength. It is impossible for Zhu Can not to know the prestige of the prince and the strength of our Far East Army. Even a commander with a little bit of talent would not choose to fight head-to-head, and Zhu Can has only 100,000 soldiers left. The Kingdom of Can is alive and dead. If Zhu Can is his subordinate, he will definitely choose to attack in a detour, or set up an ambush, or send out surprise soldiers to surround the city from a distance, or rely on the advantage of the city's location to defend the city. It is the most stupid way for soldiers to go south to meet the enemy head-on."

Shen Guang sighed, and said: "You are just the person in charge of our military intelligence government in Sichuan and Sichuan, not a general in charge of the army. You can even imagine these principles, but the ogre king who is actually very good at fighting will not think of it." These?"

Song Gongliang thought for a moment, then frowned and said, "Don't worry, my lord. I can assure you that Zhu Can has no other troops in Champion County and Hanzhong County. And Li Shimin's troops have a large number of our spies hidden nearby. Even if Li Shimin suddenly dispatched an army Sweeping around, our spies will have enough time to send the information in the eagle, so it is absolutely impossible for the enemy to ambush us."

While Cheng Yaojin led 20,000 cavalrymen northward to meet Zhu Can, Xie Yingdeng had gathered 10,000 infantrymen to attack Qushicheng.

With the precedent of Champion County being destroyed from the inside, Zhu's army's defenders in Qushi City, an important town, have already taken precautions, and his defenses are very thorough. He directly ordered all adult men in the city to be driven out. All the soldiers who were about to escape were killed, and all the women in the city were given to the soldiers to be bullied, and all the goods in the city were distributed to the soldiers to improve the morale of the army.

Not to mention, the method of guarding Qushi City is quite effective, and knowing that Zhu Can has led 100,000 troops south to support, the morale of the more than 5,000 soldiers stationed in Qushi City is very good.

Faced with this situation, the only way to attack is to attack by force.

Of course, in addition to breaking the city from the inside, there are also some clever ways to attack the city, such as digging tunnels, recruiting surrender, cheating the city gate, attacking with fire, etc. There are many ways.

But these methods not only have a low success rate, but are also very time-consuming. Xu Shiji is going to use a catapult to blow up the city with gunpowder, and then use a siege engine and a ladder to attack the city. There may be some casualties, but this This is the fastest and most effective way to attack a city.

Under the leadership of Xie Yingdeng, the stone catapult bombed the city first, but Qushi City did not know what materials and methods were used to cast the city wall, and many gaps were blown, but the city wall did not collapse.

Xie Yingdeng used the catapult explosives to scare the defenders from showing their faces. He ordered 10,000 soldiers to carry a bag of soil each. , the soldiers threw the soil they carried into the moat ditch in front of the city gate suspension bridge. Each of the 10,000 soldiers had a bag of soil, and quickly cut off the small moat of Qushi City. After the soil was compacted, the east side of Qushi City became It became a wide and flat land.

Finally, Xie Yingdeng ordered the ladder to be set up and began to rush to the city. Of course, the trebuchet did not stop during this process. In addition, ten rounds of arrows were thrown all over the sky, and then the 10,000 infantrymen of the Wagang Camp carried the ladder

, the claws at the front of the ladder penetrated deeply into the brick wall, and finally Wagang led the soldiers to climb up the ladder brandishing their knives and guns.

Because there were many gaps in the city wall, the soldiers of the Wagang camp easily attacked the top of the city and fought desperately with the enemy defending the city.

Since ancient times, the method of siege has generally been the same. It is not surprising that Xu Shiji rarely took risks when using troops, and he was often known for his stability. It was a trick, and it was easily captured. To be honest, half of the credit was given away by the Military Intelligence Office.

The current battle against Qushi City has been fought steadily from beginning to end. Every step is well-founded and strictly followed the infantry siege regulations and procedures of the Far Eastern Army. This siege will undoubtedly become a textbook A classic case of China's obedience to stereotypes.

And this was Xu Shiji's first siege after he had been trained according to the Far Eastern Army's troop training method, and he was also familiar with the method of battle formation.

When Xie Yingdeng led an army to attack Qushicheng, Cheng Yaojin led 20,000 cavalry to fight towards the north majestically.

Cheng Yaojin's expression was indifferent and stern. He watched the soldiers striding past him with great fighting spirit while riding on his horse.

Cheng Yaojin also thought of the things that Shen Guang thought of, and Xu Shiji also told him that this battle is not so simple, unless Zhu Can is really crazy, but judging from the performance of the defenders when they attacked Qushi City, Judging from the information provided by the Military Intelligence Office, Zhu Can is not crazy, and it is even less likely to be crazy on the battlefield.

Because, back then, Zhu Can used human flesh as military rations and led the army to eat human flesh for half a month. Many soldiers went crazy, but Zhu Can himself became more and more calm, even calmer than before. Like a machine.

Moreover, Zhu Can has faced many crises over the years, many of which were far more desperate and dangerous than what he was facing now, but Zhu Can has always been able to maintain absolute calm.

In the afternoon of that day, Cheng Yaojin led 20,000 cavalry to engage in battle with Zhu Can's troops on a plain on the west side of Qinglin Mountain. I don't like the combat power of Zhu Can's troops, but because of the weirdness in this matter, and the strength of the opponent's troops is nearly five times that of his own.

Therefore, Cheng Yaojin was very careful with Zhu Can's troops, commanding operations very cautiously, and refused to advance rashly.

During this period, Zhu Can's subordinates sent Qingqi to provoke and harass several times. Cheng Yaojin saw that Zhu Can seemed to have the idea of ​​tempting him to lead his troops deep into the Qinglin Mountain, so he kept ordering him to ignore it and let the other party provoke him. Set up camp on the west side of Linshan, and sent 5,000 cavalry to detour around the left and right sides, tentatively attacking and harassing Zhu's army's camp.

Both sides come and go, Zhu Can seems to have a real conspiracy, so he has not used all his strength, let alone dispatched an army of 100,000 to directly kill them, while Cheng Yaojin is secretly vigilant and also has reservations.

But secretly, the intrigue or psychological warfare between the two has already begun, and it even happens every moment in their respective camps.

Such a strange war passed quietly in the offensive and defensive and respective temptations of the enemy and the enemy, and the whole day after the battle soon passed.

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"Liang Guo's 100,000 troops from the south of Champion County suddenly came to the border of Champion County today. The army has the intention of going north to invade Champion County."

The next day, when Xu Shiji was in the 10,000 cavalry battalion of the Wagang Army, Song Gongliang came to report to Shen Guang with an urgent report sent by flying eagle from the south of Champion County.

Shen Guang's pupils shrank, and then suddenly said: "Collude with Liang Guo in the south? Is this the plan of Zhu Can and Li Shimin?"

Speaking, Shen Guang went to meet Xu Shiji in person with the information.

After reading the information, Xu Shiji's expression remained unchanged. He nodded to Shen Guang and said, "Thank you Master Shen, this information is very important to us when it is very urgent."

"General Xu, you are being polite. They are all serving the prince." Shen Guang said casually.

Xu Shiji pondered for a while, and ordered to the soldiers beside him: "Send the news to Cheng Yaojin, and tell Cheng Yaojin, let him decide for himself, if there is a chance, kill Zhu Can's men as soon as possible." /

"Go to Xie Yingdeng personally and tell him to capture Naqu Stone City within two days." Xu Shiji then ordered.

Shen Guang asked with some hesitation: "General Xu, is there really no need for Champion County to send back reinforcements, or to send reinforcements from the Central Plains?"

Xu Shiji smiled slightly and said, "Master Shen, don't worry, the current situation has not reached that point yet."

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