Chapter 208 Pujin
In the sixth year of Guanghe, on the eleventh day of the sixth month, Sishi, the west wall of the three fortresses of Puyangjin.
The people who led the army to attack this wall were Ding Sheng and Wang Zhang. Both of them were old Taishan troops and both were good warriors. Therefore, after Guan Yu mobilized, the two armies had already invaded Ruhuo and launched an attack on the west wall.
With their current status, Ding Sheng and Wang Zhang no longer need to be on the front line, but they think that Zhang Chong's military system does not allow them to do so. If their generals die, their guards will be miserable.
So now the ones running on the front line are Wang Zhang’s song general Guo Mo and Ding Sheng’s music general Jin Quan. Both of them are famous brave generals of the Taishan Army, especially Guo Mo, who is as fierce as a tiger.
He was a farmer from Yanzhou. When Sui Zhang's soldiers came to aid Hu's mother's family, he was captured by Zhang Chong in a battle, so he had been in the Taishan Army for more than two years. But despite the short time, he has already made great achievements in battle.
From Wang Zhang, he broke the Jin family wall and beheaded fifteen levels. Climb first from Poshanwei. From breaking the long spoon, he cut eight levels and captured twenty people. Later, in the battle of Bo County, he killed one general, gained the rank of twenty, and captured thirty-six people. The iron spear in his hand was already black from being soaked in too much blood.
At this time, Guo Mo led his guards, all wearing double armor, and stood in front of the formation bravely. Then he waved his hand, and a group of Taishan troops wearing only single clothes and bare feet rushed forward with a cart.
Although the Han village in front of Guo Mo didn't draw a big river to flow around the village, it dug a deep chasm and couldn't jump over it at all. And if you climb up from the trench, you will become a target for the shooters on the enemy's stronghold.
But the Taishan Army has a way. Until now, the Taishan Army has never fought any battles. It has long developed new methods of attacking the stronghold based on the Han soldiers who are good at digging deep trenches to defend the stronghold.
I saw these unlined Taishan troops getting directly behind a carriage when charging. This cart was specially modified by the craftsman camp. Currently, one side is entirely made of wooden boards and covered with cowhide to prevent fire. They pushed the cart and rushed to the deep chasm, stopped moving, fixed the cart, moved the packed earth bags from the cart, and began to fill the deep chasm.
The carriage in front of them made a clanking sound, which was the Han soldiers' archers firing arrows. At first, the Taishan army was worried, but later they saw that the Han soldiers could not do anything to them, so they filled the trench faster.
But here, as soon as the Taishan soldiers threw away the earth bags on the cart, they pulled the cart back quickly. The archers on the enemy's stronghold had nothing to do with these people.
As soon as the Taishan soldiers rushed back to the formation, they saw dust flying in front of the formation. This was the dust raised by the Taishan soldiers who stayed in the formation while digging and filling soil bags. When the Taishan soldiers were filling in the trenches in front, these people were already digging and filling bags. When the soldiers in front came back and filled these bags, they continued to move forward to fill the trenches.
To be honest, if it is an ordinary fighting group, this kind of enemy trenches will be filled with soil, and a bag of soil will be carried for a wooden stick. Only five wooden sticks can be rested. As for those who cannot be gathered together, they will die in the front, just in time to fill the gully.
The reason why they drove Dingkou to fill the gap was, on the one hand, they did not take the lives of these Guizhou leaders seriously, and on the other hand, it was also because they wanted to recharge their batteries in order to cope with the subsequent attack on the stronghold. Who would use their own people to fill ravines like Taishan Army?
But the Taishan Army was able to do it, and it was making rapid progress. In less than two seconds, ten carts had already delivered four hundred bags of earth, and a smooth earth-bag bridge of fifteen steps was built directly in the ravine in front of the Han army camp. This distance could support ten thousand people. Charging at the same time was enough for Guo Mo and the others to charge in a vertical formation.
As soon as the Taishan Army in front was filled in, they raised a yellow flag and waved it forward.
Guo Mo, who was standing in front of the formation at the back, saw the flag waving and knew that the gully had been filled, so he pulled up his mask and said in a loud voice:
"Raise weapons and exchange for peace. Charge with me"
The guardsmen behind, who were wrapped in double armor like Guo Mo, chanted this sentence and began to charge with Guo Mo, who was carrying an iron spear.
As soon as they rushed to the car in front, they hid in the car, and then drove directly to the camp under the cover of the car.
The Han soldiers standing on the camp had never seen such shamelessness, and they all hid behind the carriages. At this moment, seeing the armored soldiers below getting closer and closer, they all became anxious and quickly asked the archers to change their fire arrows.
The Han archers who were killed wrapped their arrows around their arrows and set up a brazier. Four or five of them used one brazier to light the fire. After a while, a burst of fire rained down on the carriage below.
The cart was covered with cowhide and used to set fire, but in fact, this thing could not really block the fire, that is, it would not support combustion. As the rain of arrows went down, the Taishan Army's carts began to squeak. This was the sound of burning wood. It would not take long for these carts to be scorched.
The Taishan Army below encountered problems, but the Han soldiers above did not fare well either. You must know that it is already June, and it is the hottest time of the day at noon. The Han soldiers have set up a brazier here, and you can imagine how hot it will be.
The archers of the Han soldiers were all wearing leather armor and were already airtight, so they immediately started sweating profusely. But after all, it was so difficult for the soldiers of the Northern Army, and no one said they would put out the brazier.
This means that military orders are as strong as a mountain and discipline is strict.
But if the Han soldiers can resist, the river bandits behind them will not be able to withstand it. These people were Yang Du's men. After they brought a thousand water pirates with a kind of Shao to recruit them, they were divided into troops. Half of them were assigned to the west wall and guarded the west wall with the two hundred northern soldiers here. Half of them were assigned to the east wall, and were jointly defended with the 200 North sergeants here. As for Yang Du himself, he was naturally detained in the middle army by Zhongshao, and he was guarding the most important south wall.
It can also be seen from this that Zhong Shao never thought of treating this group of water pirates well, he just used them for consumption.
In the military report sent to Lu Zhi of Hebei Province, he truthfully wrote about recruiting the river bandits:
"There is a bandit named Yang Du from a large river who has asked for help many times. If he is refused again and again, he may realize that his way of survival is at an end and take the risk and join the Yellow Turban bandits to expand their military power. If not, show restraint to the bandits and prevent them from colluding with each other. , recruiting soldiers is a waste."
Yang Du, who was full of joy and came ashore, was captured by the army as soon as he landed. His troops were used as dogs and sheep, and his people were used as military officials. The white horse water bandits, which were famous for a while, disappeared in name only. So now we can understand the laziness of the Xibi water bandits. After all, their leader is under house arrest and he is being chased like a sheep dog. No one is upset. Moreover, they are water bandits, and they focus on loyalty rather than military discipline, so some of them have already retreated to the back of the wall, staying away from the brazier.
But as soon as they retreated, a group of axemen rushed over from behind and beheaded them directly. Then they tied the heads to bamboo poles and passed them to the wall.
After being killed by these Han soldiers, no water pirates complained about the heat anymore. They were more afraid of death than the heat. Although the brutal killings of the Han soldiers stopped the retreat, the water bandits all died in grief.
At this time, the Taishan Army soldiers below were also speeding up the siege.
They unloaded the ladders from both sides of the carriage, and then, right behind the carriage, they began to use the iron cones on their arms to combine the two short ladders into one. In this way, without the Han soldiers noticing, ten ladders were hung on the On the west wall.
The Han soldiers were shocked. Immediately there were strong men holding bamboo poles to push down the ladder, but there were already soldiers standing below. In the end, only one of the ten ladders was pushed down, and the other Taishan troops waved their long swords and climbed up the west wall.
Guo Mo, who was standing under a ladder and directing the climbers, felt reassured when he saw that the brothers had already climbed up the wall. With these soldiers nailed to the wall, Guo Mo finally captured the west wall.
It was also at this time that something unexpected happened.
The Taishan Army soldiers who had already reached the top of the wall suddenly saw groups of crossbowmen coming up from both sides of the wall. Those who knew better exclaimed after just one glance:
"It's a big yellow crossbow."
Then there were arrows like locusts on both sides. The sharp arrows penetrated the armor and penetrated the skin, nailing the Taishan Army soldiers to the wall.
There were three soldiers who boarded the city. Except for the three outermost soldiers who jumped off the wall and were injured, the rest died.
Guo Mo below was about to climb the ladder when he suddenly heard screams from above. At first he thought they were enemy soldiers, but if he listened carefully, it turned out to be one of his own. My heart suddenly tightened, and I immediately shouted to the person next to me:
"Hurry up."
At this moment, three of our own people suddenly jumped off the wall, crying:
"It's the Han soldiers' big yellow crossbow."
Just as Guo Mo was about to ask again, dozens of Taishan army leaders were thrown down on the west wall, turning the foot of the wall into a Shura field.
Looking at these withered heads, and thinking that they had just spoken eloquently to him, Guo Mo became furious, raised his iron spear and shouted:
"Pigs and dogs, let Naigong die."
Then Guo Mo saw a Han soldier suddenly appear from above, holding a big yellow crossbow in his hand, and Senhan's arrow on the crossbow was already aimed at him.
——
Just when the Taishan Army Guan Yu's captain launched a general attack on Puyangjin, not far downstream of Puyangjin, Luo Gang and Pan Zhang were leading their water bandit brothers to pull out small boats from the grass. These were all hidden by the river bandits before, but now Luo Gang has brought them out to do a big thing.
Pan Zhang helped Luo Gang push the boat and said:
"Brother, do we really want to do this for the Yellow Turbans of Mount Tai? This is no small matter. No matter how nice Zhang Chong said, he said that they were conducting a frontal attack to attract the attention of the Han soldiers and asked us to go retrograde to the Puyang Bridge and stab him from behind. Kill the Han soldiers. But brother, don’t think about it simply. No matter how unprepared the Han soldiers are, there will be no one left to guard the bridge.”
Luo Gang was pulling the rope to tow the boat. After listening to Pan Zhang's words, he was silent for a while and then said:
"Azhang, I didn't think this matter would be easy, but I thought too much. I also thought that even if we fight on the bridge, we will charge at the Han soldiers first. At that time, if the Taishan army in front cannot rush in, we will It’s dangerous.”
Pan Zhang frowned and said in confusion:
"Brother, since you have thought about it, why are we doing this? Why don't we go downstream and start again? Even if that doesn't work, we can go to the river. There are so many lakes and seas in the world, and there is always a place for you and me to be free."
Luo Gang shook his head and said to Pan Zhang seriously:
"The world has changed, the world is going to be in chaos, and it is no longer possible to be a free water bandit. Now you and I, brothers, will bet on whether Zhang Chong is a person. Brother, are you willing to believe me?"
Pan Zhang looked into Luo Gang's eyes and nodded firmly.
(End of chapter)