Chapter 223 Blood Mill
In the following days, the war developed as expected in Huangfu Song Temple.
In order to take revenge, Bocai mobilized 20,000 troops from the other three strongholds, borrowed 3,000 cavalry from Pengtuo's tribe on the left bank, and added 2,000 of his own cavalry, for a total of 5,000 cavalry.
Bocai apparently gave up his original strategy of holding on to the wall and providing constant support, and wanted to fight a battle with the Han army. However, in the face of Bo Cai's several invitations to fight, the Han army chose to retreat into the camp and could not leave.
The scorching sun in July scorched the earth, and Bocai's army was blinded by the sun. Bocai realized something was wrong and immediately ordered the entire army to retreat.
But Bo Cai didn't know that when he retreated, the Han army in the stronghold discovered the fighter plane. So Zhu Jun, the former army commander, ordered Sima Sun Jian of the auxiliary army, Fu Xie of the guard school, Zhang Chao of the other corps, and the knights of Sanhe, a total of ten thousand people to take advantage of the situation and pursue them. They defeated four fortresses in the southeast and won the battle, clearing the offensive line southward to Yingyang City.
The next day, July 10, Bo Cai, who was unwilling to lose the outer defense line, came out of the middle wall again and fought fiercely with Sun Jian. At the same time, Liu Pi, a general of Peng Tuo's tribe who had come out of the pontoon to support him, bypassed the back of the stronghold and fought with Bo Cai. Attack from front and back. Fortunately, Fu Xie, the captain of the protective military academy, and Zhang Chao, the commander of the other troops, arrived with their troops and were able to rescue Sun Jian's troops.
In this battle, Sun Jian's 1,000 Jianghuai descendants were killed, and 200 were killed. Sun Jian himself was wounded in three places, and the Sun clan lost four people in the battle. This was the biggest loss for his tribe in the history of the war.
However, Sun Jian became more and more courageous with every setback. On the 12th day of the seventh lunar month, Zhu Jun's six divisions under the command of You Zhonglang, totaling 20,000 troops, rushed out to attack Bocaibi.
Sun Jian led the northern warriors Han Dang and Cheng Pu to ascend first, and from Chen to Wei, they broke through the two major fortresses, while the smaller fortresses all fled without fighting. After Youchi, the Sanhe Knights of the Han Army defeated the five thousand cavalry organized by the Yellow Turban Army on the flank, and finally blocked the communication line of Peng Tuo's troops on the left bank to support the right bank.
On July 13, after a fierce battle all day long, the Han army was unable to break through the waves and then stopped. At three quarters of the night, Bocai's troops abandoned the central military base and retreated to Yingyang in three groups.
At this point, all the four major strongholds and twenty-eight small strongholds in the northeast of Yingyang were destroyed. The Han soldiers went straight to the north gate of Yingyang, stationed themselves in the trenches, and established a long-term siege.
On July 14, Huangfu Song, the general of Zuo Zhonglang who was supervising the battle to contain the main force of Peng Tuo's troops on the left bank, learned of the great victory on the right bank. He sent a message to Zhu Jun, the general of Right Zhonglang, to warn him not to go deep again and break Peng Tuo's troops on the left bank first. Department, and then attack the city together. But unfortunately, Zhu Jun thought that Huangfu Song's move was just because he was worried that he would take the lead, so he ignored it.
But in fact, Zhu Jun did not know the situation on the front line because he did not go to the front line in person.
From the start of the war on July 8 to the end of the Yellow Turban Army's northeast camp complex on July 14, the Youhan Army Headquarters had been fighting at high intensity for six consecutive days, and was in a state of fatigue among the division veterans. At the same time, because Zhu Jun could not help but plunder, each unit's troops were returned to their own country after being surrendered. This was Zhu Jun's morale-boosting move.
However, due to the competition between various ministries, fights occasionally broke out. Especially after the Bocai tribe abandoned the largest central military fortress on July 13, Sun Jian's tribe and Fu Xie's tribe who entered the wall successively fought for the baggage left by the Bocai tribe, and a large-scale fight broke out. In the end, although they were caught up by the rear Sun Jian and Fu Xie worked together to stop it, but both sides still suffered dozens of casualties. At this point, the two armies were far apart and the gap was deep.
This is still one aspect. Zhu Jun had a total of six troops, and they all captured a large amount of baggage when they attacked Bo Cai's tribe. The soldiers had property, but none of them had the will to fight. Everyone was thinking about how to end the battle quickly and send their share of the seizure home. These seizures were not only money and food, but also women.
Because the Bocai tribe did not retreat in time, some old battalion personnel were stranded in the central military base. Most of these old battalion personnel were family members of the Yellow Turban Army, including the elderly, weak, women, and children.
When Sun Jian's and Fu Xie's troops broke into the central military base, they directly captured thousands of women and children.
One of these women and children was named Huang, who was only sixteen years old. Her two brothers were both Runan Taiping Taoists. In the previous battle, both brothers were killed, leaving only him, his mother and his brother. This time the Bocai troops broke out, and her family was stranded in the camp. When Sun Jian's troops rushed over, one of them, an old brother from Jianghuai, Sun Jian, took a direct liking to Huang. He took Huang out of the prisoner's mouth alone and wanted to take her back to her hometown in Jianghuai to be her daughter-in-law.
At that time, Huang's younger brother and his mother knelt down and begged him to let Huang go, but the evil young man from Jianghuai said harshly:
"You who are thieves will all be killed without mercy. I will kill you all now without any unnecessary words. You still dare to cry and talk here."
But unfortunately, his Jianghuai dialect was like bird talk to the ears of the old mother and young brother, and they were completely incomprehensible, so they still begged and cried. Finally, he angered the evil young man from Jianghuai and killed them all with one knife. At this time, the mother's eldest daughter-in-law ran out from the crowd, lay on the body and cried bitterly, and was stabbed by him.
There are not a few people who are as ruthless as this evil boy from Jianghuai. These people were already wandering and desperate in their hometown, but when they arrived on this cruel battlefield, their nerves were stimulated even more. Humans and animals are just one thought apart. And these warriors who had been destroyed by the war obviously had no intention of becoming human beings.
What morality is, it’s just a matter of one knife! Today I will kill you, and tomorrow he will kill me again. Anyway, I don’t live long, so naturally I’ll have a good time!
So even after killing Huang's mother, younger brother, and eldest sister-in-law, this evil young man from Jianghuai still remained shameless. Facing Huang, who begged for a quick death, the man picked her up and laughed while insulting her:
"You have to thank me, you can't live without me!"
Finally, Huang was tied up and still on the baggage truck. Along with dozens of young women who had the same experience as her, they were sent to the Sima camp of Sun Jian's assistant army. They would all be sent to Jianghuai to become those who killed The wife of their family's enemy.
In this way, the more fighting in the front, the more baggage captured in the rear camp. The soldiers under General You Zhonglang have all become rich, and everyone is grateful to this good General General Zhonglang who does not take any advantage of him. This is the true love of soldiers as sons. So for a time, the whole army's support for Zhu Jun reached a peak, but the price was the thieves like the Yellow Turban Army and the determination to die that the Han army had in the first battle.
So when Zhu Junzhi was so proud that he sent troops to the north gate of Yingyang, he didn't know that these soldiers under his command had no fighting spirit.
Accidents always occur at the most sudden and critical times.
In fact, at the beginning, Zhu Jun’s aide Xin Ping also advised him, the mastermind:
"My lord, our army is exhausted after a long battle. Our troops are heavily laden with supplies, and our soldiers have no fighting spirit. Moreover, our army is the only one to attack Yingyang City alone. The road back is empty, and the Yellow Turban Army on the left bank still sticks to the wall of Jiahe Village. Our army has attacked several times. , can't defeat it. If our army forces troops under Yingyang City, and the Runan Yellow Turban Army on the west bank moves eastward, our army will be in danger. It is better to retreat to the wall temporarily, recuperate, and then attack the Runan Yellow Turban Army to the west and fight with General Zuo Zhonglang. Together, we will pull out all the enemy walls outside the city to have a better chance of winning.”
Although Xin Ping was arrogant and looked down on people from a poor family like Sun Jian, theoretically his leader Zhu Jun was also from a poor family. But now Zhu Jun has reached the high position of Han Youzhonglang general and he has been favored by him. Therefore, Xin Ping was very dedicated to Zhu Jun.
Xin Ping was not a clean figure who just sat around and talked, but was a leader who upheld the practical spirit of Yingchuan scholar-bureaucrats. These days, he often walked around the camps. He knew exactly what the current atmosphere in the army was, so he advised Zhu Jun to first Retreat to the original barriers of Taiping Road.
But Zhu Jun was very proud and had a high self-esteem at the moment. He felt that he was deeply favored by the country and was about to move forward bravely. Moreover, in this six-day battle, the thieves' strongholds collapsed. Doesn't this series of victories just show how weak the Yellow Turban thieves are and how good their troops are at fighting?
And there has always been a thorn in his heart, that is Huangfu Song, the general of Zuo Zhonglang.
The country valued Huangfu Song and listened to his military strategy before going on an expedition. But what about Zhu Jun? He is just dispensable and can only be appointed by the ministers in the court.
He also knew that the reason why he could take office was because Huangfu Song was from Kansai, and most of the big guys in the court were from Kanto. They instinctively rejected the monopolization of military power by the Kansai faction, so they elected him.
But whether it was the country or the ministers, who really valued Zhu Jun's ability? Yes, it is true that Human Emperor Fu Song came from a family of generals and was a born general, but he was from a poor family, and he started off as a southern barbarian who was the least popular. But he, Zhu Jun, was not convinced. Did the prince and general Xiang Ning have any kind of talent?
And along the way, Huangfu Song taught him several times, almost treating him as a Houmo who didn't know how to fight. Now it's better, he finally fought for the upper reaches. When he defeated the main force of Bo Cai on the east bank of Yingshui River, on the west bank, Huangfu Song was still fighting fiercely with the Runan Yellow Turban Army. Who knew that the soldiers were not clear at a glance?
And now Huangfusong came to point out to him again, saying that he should not go deep alone and trick him into going to the West Bank to help him break the Runan Yellow Turban. Are you really stupid to think that he, Zhu Jun, came from the bottom?
Having said that, Zhu Jun has not lost his head after all. He knows that Huangfu Song and his staff Xin Ping are right to worry, and they still have to keep troops behind. Now under Dunbing City, both troops and military resources need to be moved further forward. Only by garrisoning troops in the many barriers of the original Taiping Road can the supply line be protected.
Zhu Jun is wise, otherwise he would not have reached this point. He has already seen through some things. Some people will always tell you some right things, but this does not prevent them from benefiting from it. Just like Huangfu Song, he reminded himself that he was right, but if he was really stupid enough to think that his analysis was right and follow his advice to attack the West Bank, he would have fallen into someone else's trap.
Now he, Zhu Jun, not only wants to back each other's back, but also wants to continue going south to attack Yingyang City. He Zhu Jun wants both safety and military merit.
But in this way, the troops going south to attack the city will naturally be thinned out. He originally had 20,000 soldiers, but after six days of fierce fighting, he lost 3,000. Now if we want to divide the troops and stay in the garrison, we need to keep another 7,000 troops, and then only 10,000 will follow him south. This strength is really not enough.
So at first Zhu Jun left a message to the other counties in Yingchuan in the rear, asking them to come and guard the troops from Yi County. But whether it is Changshe or Yangzhai, on the one hand they compliment Youzhonglang General for his indomitable will and his invincibility, so they are not needed at all. On the other hand, they refused on the grounds that the county was dilapidated and was in ruins, so no extra manpower could be mobilized.
Zhu Jun naturally knew that when he was raising military supplies before the scheduled time, some of his methods offended these powerful toubos. Now that he was in need, he hurriedly refused, just to see Zhu Gongwei's jokes.
Okay, then he will use these ten thousand soldiers to destroy Yingyang City and shock the world.
On July 14, the sixth year of Guanghe, Zhu Jun led a main force of 10,000 Han soldiers, including 2,000 from the expanded left army Sima Sun Jian, 3,000 from the center army Sima Zhang Chao, 3,000 from the right army Sima Fu Xie, and Two thousand Three Rivers knights commanded by Zhu Jun himself. Prepare to attack the enemy directly in the north of Yingyang City.
Outside Yingyang City, Taiping Taoist envoy Ma Yuanyi was not idle when the Han army attacked Bocai's tribe. He also built a camp outside the city. When Bocai's tribe retreated south into the city, Ma Yuanyi intercepted half of his elite troops and stayed behind. Hold the camp outside the city.
So, on July 14, Zhu Jun's troops arrived in the north of Yingyang City. What they saw were wooden walls stretching for miles, with more than a dozen forts interspersed in between. These forts were less than a hundred steps away from the city wall, and the arrows on the towers were all Can be supported. The ones that are far away are as far as two miles away, but these wooden walls are used to form corridors between all the camps to facilitate the soldiers of each camp to support each other.
Zhu Jun went out to watch the army and couldn't help but take a breath when he saw the complex group of intersecting barriers outside the city. This kind of civil engineering work was actually done by these thieves?
It is no wonder that Zhu Jun was surprised. The people who built such fortifications were not ordinary people, but a battalion of civil servants selected by Ma Yuanyi from the congregation. The whole battalion had experience in participating in large-scale Han Dynasty projects, drilling canals, building palaces and tombs. So not to mention the corridors of this chain village, even the corridors made of stone, as long as there are enough stones, they can be built for you. Zhu Jun knew that this chain of strongholds was difficult to defeat. When he originally broke through the four major strongholds and the twenty-eight small strongholds of Bo Caibu, he had to use cavalry to penetrate and cut through the reinforcements from other strongholds in order to defeat them one by one. But now, these Yellow Turban troops have obviously learned the lesson from the previous time and directly used the corridor as a reinforcement line, so that the Han army's cavalry can no longer cut them off.
What a Yellow Turban Army, what a corridor!
But what can he do if he knows it's not easy to fight? At this point, Zhu Jun can only bite the bullet.
In the art of war, when attacking a city, you must first break the fortress.
Since the situation was like this, Zhu Jun decisively ordered Sun Jian to attack the left, Fu Xie to attack the right, and Zhang Chao to attack the center. The three troops attacked at the same time, and Zhu Jun himself had Sanhe Jingqi in reserve to respond at any time.
As soon as the three Han armies attacked, drums rang out from the top of Yingyang City. Then the Yellow Turban Army in the camps under the city began to fight and began to support the front-line attacked camps along the wooden corridor.
Therefore, Sun, Fu, and Zhang spared no effort in fighting from morning to afternoon. They killed countless bandits, but they did not see fewer bandit soldiers. They were at a low place and had no idea that throughout the morning, Taiping Dao envoys continued to sing Huang Tian's hymns, encouraging waves of Yellow Turban troops to enter the corridor.
Originally, Ma Yuanyi's subordinates were all elites who were developed by him in Jingyang. However, after being betrayed by the traitor Tang Zhou in Kyoto, only he escaped with three or five key members. Now he has 20,000 Taiping Dao soldiers who have just been assembled and generally have no combat experience.
But Ma Yuanyi has one power that other commanders do not have, and that is Fuji. After several large-scale support ceremonies, the 20,000 Taiping Taoists were now devout in their faith, and some were fanatical. These were selected by Ma Yuanyi as Yellow Turban warriors, supplemented with armor and weapons, and organized into an army according to Han military law.
But now, inspired by the Taoist envoys within the sect, these yellow scarf warriors are devoting their lives to Huang Tian, continuously filling the flesh and blood millstone ahead with fearless courage.
The fierce battle continued until Shenshi. At this moment, the Han army was hungry and thirsty, and the Yellow Turban army had only entered the tunnel because they had used food in the back. The war was getting stronger and stronger, and the balance of victory was clearly tilted towards the Yellow Turban army.
Sun Jian, who was fighting on the front line, keenly felt that the situation had changed. After fighting hard for a while, he quickly climbed to the high wall and sent a signal to Cheng Pu outside the barrier to ask for reinforcements.
Cheng Pu had been cruising outside the camp with a hundred cavalry. When he saw Sun Jian's flag and knew that his army was in the most danger, he without hesitation summoned a hundred cavalry to prepare for reinforcements in the camp.
But at this moment, a new military officer, Lu Fan from Xiyang, Runan, persuaded Cheng Pu and said:
"General Qu, it won't help if we rush into the camp now. Sima is not short of a hundred of us. I guess Sima must want us to cut off the reinforcements of the thieves. Now these reinforcements are walking along these wooden walls. There is a steady stream of people entering the front village. If this tunnel is not destroyed, I am afraid this battle will be lost.”
Lu Fan was the future Grand Sima of Sun Wu and an old minister who served Sun Ce and his brothers. According to the original plane, after the chaos in Runan, he avoided Shouchun in the Jianghuai River, and then became acquainted with Sun Ce, the general under Yuan Shu's account, and started his career as a tiger minister of the Sun family.
But due to the emergence of many factors in this world, history has undergone major changes. It turned out that Lu Fan was a county official in Xiyang, Runan. It turned out that the yellow turbans in Runan were rising, and Xiyang was quickly defeated. He retreated to Shangcai with the officials in the county, and joined many soldiers to join Zhao Qian, the prefect of Runan. But who would have thought that in the battle of Zhaoling, Zhao Qian was defeated, and Lu Fan was also captured by the Yellow Turban Army. If he had not been smart enough to change into short clothes in advance, he would have been beheaded by the Runan Yellow Turban.
Later, he followed the Runan Yellow Turban all the way north to Yingyang. In the previous battle, he accompanied the Runan Yellow Turban to support the Bocai tribe on the east coast, and was subsequently captured.
It turned out that he had been tied to a tree stump and was being beheaded as a prisoner of the Yellow Turban Army, and Sun Jian was the supervisor. Well, it was the time when Sun Jian massacred eight thousand prisoners.
After all, Lu Fan had the luck and courage. In the most terrifying slaughterhouse in the world, he suddenly struggled to stand up and shouted to Sun Jian, who was wearing a red turban:
"How can my husband die like a pig or a dog? Please live for me. I, Lu Fan, will go through life and death for my father-in-law."
Sun Jian was very surprised. You must know the scene at that time. Not to mention those like Lu Fan who stretched out their necks and were beheaded, even the executioners who beheaded them had already been killed with mercy. But now there are still people who have the courage to stand up and still do it. Can speak a lot of words.
Moreover, against the backdrop of a group of Taiping Dao thieves who were so frightened that they urinated like urine, Lu Fan's courage became even more outstanding.
Then Sun Jian let him go and asked about his origins. He found out that he was originally a Han army official and was captured later. He felt unhappy. He felt that Lu Fan was a rat who was greedy for life and afraid of death. He was originally stirred up by Lu Fan's words. The appreciation I had had has also faded a bit.
Lu Fan noticed it and said one more thing:
"General, I, Lu Fan, was poor when I was young and was often looked down upon by my fellow villagers. Later, I fell in love with Liu, the daughter of a wealthy family in my hometown, and came to propose marriage. But her mother thought my family was poor and refused. I said at that time: ' I, Lu Fan, an arrogant husband, have been living as a low-level official for a long time. I have high ambitions, so why not worry about being rich? 'After that, I married Mrs. Liu and became a county official."
When Sun Jian heard this story, he felt that it was familiar. Isn't it similar to what he had done back then? He was also looked down upon by his wife's family, and he also said loudly that young people should not be bullied into poverty, but in the end he also became enterprising. Sun Jian, who felt kindhearted, took a closer look at Lu Fan. Even though his face was covered in blood, he could still see his high spirits and beautiful appearance, and he felt relieved to let him go.
And then I heard Lu Fan said:
"It's the same now, general. I'm a mess in this land of shit. I don't have anything big to say, but please trust me once, general. As long as you save me, Lu Fan, I, Lu Fan, will use my body and blood to repay the general for saving my life."
After saying that, Lu Fan knelt on the ground and kowtowed heavily to Sun Jian.
Sun Jian twirled his short beard, pondered for a moment, and not only released Lu Fan, but also recruited him as a military official under the command of the cavalry general Cheng Pu. Later, Lu Fan joined the army and rushed to the front several times. Finally, he gained Cheng Pu's recognition and realized that he was brave, wise and a talented person.
But now Lu Fan was admonishing again, and Cheng Pu also paid attention to it and asked directly if there was any way to break the wooden wall corridor.
Lu Fan spit out two words:
"Fire attack."
So Cheng Pu piled 20 carts with kerosene and firewood, and together with Lu Fan, he personally rushed down the corridor and set them on fire. The flames burst out and made the wooden corridor creak in a moment.
The yellow scarf warriors who were supporting in the corridor also smelled the smell of kerosene and were still wondering, when the heat wave scorched them, and then the flames suddenly reached three feet high and flooded this section of the corridor. And because the corridors were connected, the wind helped the fire, and the fire burned along the corridors to the next section of the barrier. Fortunately, the commander of the Yellow Turban Army at this barrier was wise and quickly demolished the front section of the tunnel, thus stopping the fire in this section.
But the corridor for reinforcements has disappeared, and Qianzhai can only fight alone. As soon as Cheng Pu's side broke through the corridor, the Han soldiers on the center and right also followed suit and began to push the train to hit the corridor and burn it. For a time, the flames shot into the sky and heat waves billowed.
It was in this hot flame that the three barriers attacked by the Han army were broken down one by one. In this battle, no one from the Yellow Turbans surrendered, and the battle lasted until the last moment. Naturally, the Han army did not leave any prisoners, and captured all the thieves wearing yellow scarves.
In this battle, Zhu Jun, the right-hand man, once again won a great victory, but when he was counted after the battle, he shed tears. In this battle, there were 8,000 Han soldiers in the three main attacks. The casualties in the first battle were as high as 2,000. Several battalion leaders were killed and dispersed, and the army was no longer able to form an army.
And this is only the outermost barrier that has been cleared. There are still several more layers behind, plus the Yellow Turban Army in the city. This battle seems to be won, but it is actually lost.
Because if the walls of the Yellow Turban army were destroyed one by one in this way, Zhu Jun's troops would be dead and he would not be able to reach the city walls.
Knowing that there was a problem, Zhu Jun was no longer complacent and burned down the three occupied fortresses. He then led his troops to withdraw to the original camps of Bocai. He gathered the 7,000 soldiers here to repair and rebuild the fortress. Organize the entire army. Especially the few battalion leaders who have been disorganized need to be reorganized and trained. After a while, these battalion leaders will not be able to fight.
Afterwards, Zhu Jun wrote another letter, giving the beginning and end of the battle to Huangfu Song, who was fighting fiercely on the west bank, and asked him if he needed it. After he repaired it, he could cross the river and attack the flank of the Runan Yellow Turban Army in the west.
It is not without reason that Zhu Jun can rise from a young age. His soft figure is at least something that Huangfu Song does not have, but this is definitely what a good commander should have.
But no matter how soft Zhu Jun is, the battles before and after have resulted in the loss of 5,000 elite troops. Now his troops can only lick their wounds in the camp and work hard to restore their fighting strength.
Just when Zhu Jun was feeling gloomy outside Yingyang City, an encounter also occurred in Changshe, a hundred miles away.
This is a contest between Han cavalry and Taishan cavalry!
Cool! This chapter is written in one go and is transparent! It describes the high-level battle between the Han court and the Ruying Yellow Turban Army! Tomorrow's chapter will return the perspective to the protagonist. This is a real cavalry attack. It is my first time to write about this kind of cavalry attack, so I have to put some thought into it. But no matter what, everyone starts voting monthly!
(End of chapter)