Chapter 928 Line of Defense
On the west bank of Surabaya, a brief encounter had just ended.
Hundreds of corpses of Yangzhou soldiers in crimson robes were scattered around the battlefield. From time to time, crows would land nearby, watching the killing field.
Not far from here, Ma Chao and his cavalry were running frantically for their lives. Behind them were the same number of Yangzhou Army cavalry.
Just yesterday morning, Ma Chao's You Yi found traces of a large number of Yangzhou troops on the left, which made Ma Chao realize a grim reality:
The enemy is organizing troops to ambush him!
According to normal thinking, Ma Chao should immediately lead the cavalry to retreat north. After all, the Yangzhou Army's cavalry force is not large, and he would not be able to catch up with him if he wanted to withdraw.
But Ma Chao refused to run away, and took advantage of his cavalry to take the initiative to go west to attack the Yangzhou Army.
There were ten thousand Yangzhou troops coming up. Although the number was large, the distance between the various units was very large. This was the normal state of the march, and it was not that the Yangzhou army was incapable of doing anything.
But just like this, Ma Chao seized the opportunity and rushed directly with less than 800 cavalry, defeating a Yangzhou army in the wild.
This is the advantage of cavalry. With its ultra-high mobility, it can quickly appear anywhere on the battlefield and then attack the enemy's weak points.
The Yangzhou Army's combat effectiveness is not weak, and its fighting will is very determined. However, the Yangzhou Army that Ma Chao captured was only a garrison of about a hundred people, which was much weaker than the Taishan Army.
So when other friendly forces of the Yangzhou Army came to support, Ma Chao's troops had already annihilated this unit and left.
In this way, Ma Chao's troops quickly penetrated and annihilated four or five groups of Yangzhou troops in succession.
This directly angered the army leader Quan Rou.
Quanrou deployed his troops on the spot, and then used the entire army's sudden cavalry force as a sharp knife to compress Ma Chao's maneuvering space.
This is the best way to target the cavalry, which is to use the strength of a large corps to surround the cavalry's activity space, thus forming an encirclement.
Sure enough, when Ma Chao attacked an advancing Yangzhou infantry group again, he was directly blocked by the nearby Yangzhou army.
Realizing that something was wrong, Ma Chao immediately slipped away before the encirclement was formed.
But before Ma Chao could be happy, he saw the cavalry of the Yangzhou Army appearing behind him.
This was the first time Ma Chao encountered the Yangzhou cavalry in a field battle. Their horses were not very good, but their riding skills were unexpectedly superb.
Ma Chao did not turn back to fight, but continued to break through to the north.
The Yangzhou cavalry general behind him may have had enough of being beaten passively for this period of time, so he still pursued him.
In his opinion, Ma Chao was frightened and it was time to pursue the victory.
But the cavalry general didn't know that when Quan Rou, who stayed where he was, didn't see the cavalry return for half an hour, he realized something was wrong and quickly asked someone to chase the cavalry back.
But the cavalry had already chased them for more than ten miles, so how could they easily catch up.
At this time, what these Yangzhou Army cavalry didn't know was that to their north, Li Hu led more than 800 cavalry out of the woods.
Then, under the orders of brass whistles, they got on their horses, and more than 800 elite armored cavalry began to walk slowly towards the smoke and dust in the south.
At this time, the cavalry of the Yangzhou Army were just chasing Ma Chao and the others through a mountain valley, and then saw the Taishan Army's sudden cavalry on the plain that had completed their acceleration.
With only eight hundred riders, they rushed out with a majestic momentum.
At this moment, the souls of the Yangzhou Army knights appeared and they realized that they had been trapped.
Sure enough, when Li Hu's cavalry appeared on the battlefield, Ma Chao, who had been retreating, made a circle and rushed towards the rear of the Yangzhou Cavalry Regiment.
With the sound of galloping horse hooves, the trembling ground, countless flags, and the flashing glory of swords and guns, Li Hu's cavalry only completed two rounds of attacks before the Yangzhou army collapsed.
Then, more than 900 Yangzhou Army knights who were completely surrounded by Li Hu and Ma Chao were gathered and annihilated here.
At this time, the main force of the Yangzhou Army was only eight miles away.
But these eight miles have become a natural chasm.
When the smoke and dust from the north mixed with the miserable wails came into Quanrou's eyes, he cried loudly:
"Luo Tong, give me back my cavalry."
Luo Tong was the Yangzhou cavalry general who had just been in charge of the pursuit.
But it was useless for Quanrou to cry anymore. These more than 900 cavalry were already all the cavalry in his army. After being eliminated from this force, Quanrou no longer had the will to fight.
Quanrou has realized from this moment that when they saw Ma Chao's light soldiers rushing in, they thought they were hunters. In fact, looking at it now, they were clearly prey.
Therefore, Quanrou directly ordered the entire army to shrink towards the Shiwuliting defense line.
At the same time, Quanrou also released the remaining sentinels. When Quanrou and his entire army entered Muzhai, only one of these sentinels returned, but he brought important information to Quanrou:
"The great thief Zhang appears."
At that time, Quanrou had only luck, and the main force of Taishan Army had arrived.
……
In the fourth year of Taiwu, on the third day of April, Zhang Chong led an army of 60,000 to the defense line of Shifuli Pavilion in Pengcheng.
On the same day, the Golden Arrow Order of the Chinese Army was issued to the generals of all armies, ordering them to attack Shiwuliting immediately.
In this battle, General Zhang Nan supervised the Sixth Army and besieged the defense line of Shiwuliting. General Xie Bi led the three armies to set up camp in the southwest of Shiwuliting to block the reinforcements coming from the direction of Pengcheng.
At the same time, the Xuzhou Army, which was preparing to encircle Ma Chao at the agreed time, failed to detect changes in the battlefield in time due to lack of cavalry strength.
When the main force of the Taishan Army appeared, the more than 10,000 Xuzhou Army had no time to withdraw and could only form a vehicle formation on the spot.
The commander-in-chief of this army was Xuzhou General Wang Rui.
Wang Rui is the most prominent figure in the Langya Wang family. Historically, he was awarded the title of Marquis for his military merits. However, when he was the governor of Jingzhou, he was plotted by Sun Jian because of his conflict with Sun Jian and was forced to commit suicide by swallowing gold.
Of course, in this time and space, he certainly doesn't have these experiences.
Because he was brave and intelligent, good at riding and shooting, elegant in manners, and from the Langya wealthy family, he had a unit of soldiers with consistent orders, so he soon became one of the important leaders of the Xuzhou Army, and has always been regarded as the Qiancheng by Xuzhou people. .
Originally, Wang Rui's army of 10,000 people was deployed on the east bank of Surabaya. Because he wanted to encircle the Taishan Army with the Yangzhou Army to the west, he ordered his younger brother Wang Rong to serve as the front army and lead 3,000 people to cross the river first.
In Wang Rui's generation, there are four brothers, Wang Yi, Wang Rui, Wang Rong, and Wang Dian. Each of them is a handsome man, so they are also called the "Four Tigers of the Wang Family".
Wang Rong is the bravest among the brothers. He is especially good at writing the character "tiger", and he has a lot of momentum when he writes.
It seems that the Wang family is naturally good at calligraphy.
This time Wang Rong led 3,000 Xuzhou troops and some local wealthy tribes to cross the river first, while Wang Rui led his own army and stationed in the east of the river with 3,000 Danyang troops.
But no one expected that the change would happen so quickly, that the situation would change suddenly, and that the main force of the Taishan Army would arrive on the battlefield so quickly.
After Zhang Chong learned that there was still Xuzhou Army staying on the battlefield, he ordered General Guo Mo from the left wing to lead an army to attack.
At this time, the Xuzhou Army that fell to the west of the bridge had not yet formed a formation, and was directly besieged by Guo Mo's men from all sides. A bloody battle broke out directly between the two sides.
Wang Rong's 3,000 Xuzhou troops all used long spears measuring 1 to 5 feet long, had numerous bows and crossbows, and were often combined with chariots and camps. They were typical elite southern infantry.
Li Ling, who went out to attack the Xiongnu during the Pre-Han Dynasty, led the infantry here, and his tactics are still used today.
Because many of Wang Rong's men were father-son brothers, they were very determined to fight, and because they were surrounded from all sides, they couldn't run away even if they wanted to, so everyone was risking their lives.
Guo Mo ordered a volley of bows and crossbows, but it could not shake the Xuzhou army in the slightest. He also ordered two thousand front troops to attack, but they were beaten back.
At this moment, Guo Mo had to face up to this force and ordered his powerful general Huang Xu to break into the enemy's formation with 500 infantrymen.
Huang Xu joined the Taishan Army along with his father Huang Zhong in the Yiluo War. Because the Taishan Army did not allow father and son to be in the same army, Huang Xu was assigned to Guo Mo's command.
Guo Mo himself was a warrior, so he naturally loved a brave general like Huang Xu and promoted him to be the general of his army.
This time was Huang Xu's first attack as a trapped general.
At this time, he, like the five hundred armored soldiers behind him, were all wearing complete infantry armor. In the first round of the horn, he rushed towards the Xuzhou Army's vehicle formation.
The Xuzhou Army, which had fought so bravely just now, collapsed under the impact of these 500 infantry soldiers.
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As soon as the defense line was overrun, the Taishan Army's assault cavalry attacked from all directions and annihilated all three thousand Xuzhou Army on the west bank.
The leader of the army, Wang Rong, was also shot to death by Huang Xu with an arrow, and his head was hung on the flag.
At this time, the remaining Xuzhou Army went straight to Wang Rui's main formation on the east bank along the shore bridge.
When the fighting broke out on the west bank, Wang Rui's side had already completed the formation at Wuli East of Surabaya.
He dug a trench and set up camp, using straw as a barrier and smearing mud on the outside. His brother's tenacious resistance bought him time.
After Guo Mo's troops crossed the river, they also surrounded Wang Rui's 7,000 men to death.
However, because of the tight barriers of this army, Guo Mo did not launch a direct attack, but notified the rear to mobilize ballistae and stone-fired vehicles.
Especially the stone car has enough lethality for this kind of wooden village.
Of course, Guo Mo also had another idea, which was to use the 7,000 Xuzhou Army as bait to see if he could mobilize the Xuzhou Army from Fifteen Mile Pavilion to the south.
The tactic of encircling a point for reinforcements has long been used by veterans like Guo Mo.
But how could Guo Mo know that the defenders of Shifuli Pavilion only numbered more than 20,000 people, so how could they dare to rescue Wang Rui?
And as Quanrou led thousands of people to the Shifuli Pavilion defense line, the Yangzhou army was the main force here. There are not enough people in the first place, so how can they rescue a Xuzhou Army?
Allies and allies, but in the final analysis, the Xu and Yang families are not one family.
As a result, Wang Rui and his 7,000 Xuzhou elite were trapped in the stronghold, with no food and grass inside, and no help from outside. Once the Taishan Army's ballistae and stones came up, they would be dead.
……
At the same time, on the front battlefield of Shishiliting, Zhang Nan, the governor of the Sixth Army, camped in the north of the pavilion.
When Quanrou, who was on the defensive, was building a camp at Zhang Nan's headquarters, he sent out troops to harass him, but was cut off by the sudden cavalry of the Taishan Army. He lost thousands of people and hurriedly withdrew his defense line.
On the same day, Zhang Nan ordered General Li Wu to lead the Guangwu Army and set up camp northwest of Shiwuliting, and together with him formed a siege to Shiwuliting.
The next day, Zhang Nan ordered all armies to launch an attack on the barrier of Shiwuliting, and successively eliminated the surrounding strongholds, leaving Shiwuliting completely alone and in danger.
Quanrou was unwilling to give in and tried to regain the position and fortress lost during the day at night.
But the gap between the main forces of the Yangzhou Army and the Taishan Army is all-round. They can't do it during the day, and they can't do it at night.
This time, the Yangzhou Army was defeated again.
Quanrou, who had been defeated three times in succession, realized the gap in combat power between them and the Taishan Army, so he gave up the idea of going to war and began to defend Shiwuliting.
In the early morning of April 5th, the Taishan Army attacked the Shiwuliting defense line for the first time, but was repelled by the Yangzhou Army several times in a row.
It was at this time that Zhang Nan heard that Guo Mo on the east bank finally defeated Wang Rui's camp, and then wiped out 7,000 people in this unit in one battle, which was the first victory since the war began.
It turned out that the ballistas and stone carts that Guo Mo wanted were finally transported from the rear. Under the attack of these military and national weapons, the Xuzhou military camp was directly reduced to powder.
The more serious consequence was that the Xuzhou Army, which had never been exposed to a stone car in the field, was directly frightened by such power, and its morale collapsed.
In this way, Wang Rui, who could be considered a general, died in the battle with his troops on the edge of Surabaya, becoming the first heavyweight to die since the war began.
After learning that Guo Mo's side had taken the lead, Zhang Nan also became anxious and began to speed up the attack.
He also mobilized stone-fired trucks from the rear, and because he had higher authority, he directly called in hundreds of stone-fired trucks.
These stone-launching carts violently bombarded the Shififiling Pavilion defense line.
The Shiwuliting defense line was not a permanent defense line in the first place. It was also constructed in a hurry. Not even Pengcheng, let alone this place, could withstand such a large-scale attack.
As a result, first the outermost four walls were lost, then the south, and finally even the main camp where Quanrou was located could no longer hold it.
When a steady stream of Taishan troops rushed into the camp, Quanrou shouted in the direction of Sun Jian to the south:
"My lord, it's hard to save the world, the last general will go first!"
After saying that, Quanrou rushed into the rebel army and was beheaded by a generation of northern generals from the Taishan Army.
……
With Quanrou's death in battle, the remaining barriers on the defense line also fell one after another. On that day, as many as 30,000 Taishan troops walked along the corridor of the Shiwuliting defense line to clear out the Xu and Yang coalition forces.
The Wuliting defense line originally had 10,000 Xuzhou troops. Later, it received the defeated troops from the two outer defense lines, and the military strength reached 16,000.
Later, Xuzhou and Yangzhou each sent 10,000 troops to support them. In other words, the two sides had already invested more than 30,000 troops on this battlefield.
But now, in just three days, these more than 30,000 people were annihilated, reducing the strength of the Xu and Yang coalition forces to 70,000.
Among them, the Yangzhou Army has 40,000 soldiers left, and the Xuzhou Army has 30,000 soldiers left.
Even though the total number of people in the Yangzhou Army did not seem to have changed much, the 10,000 people they had recruited before were just the armed forces of wealthy families in the land. People had different hearts and minds, and the good and the bad were mixed.
But the ten thousand people they lost were Sun Jian's core weapons.
With this coming and going, Sun Jian's combat effectiveness was directly reduced by more than half.
This is not to mention the Xuzhou Army. At this time, Chen Deng, who only had 30,000 troops left, had to accept the reality that this war seemed to be no longer something he could lead.
The fall of Shiwuliting not only had these visible effects, it also directly affected the fighting will of the Xu and Yang armies.
Shiwuliting is not only a fortress defense line, but also a psychological defense line.
But within three days, the Shiwuliting defense line built with great effort by both sides fell.
Its impact on the morale of the Xu and Yang families was fatal.
Everyone in the team began to ask this question:
"Why is the Taishan Army's combat effectiveness so strong?"