Chapter 755 Crossing the River
In the third year of Taiwu, on May 28th, Mao hour.
Four thousand six hundred and seventy-three officers and soldiers of the Gongsheng Army began to cross the Luoshui River.
Luoshui, an ancient river, nourishes the earliest civilization in China. In fact, the Yiluo Rivers where the Gongsheng Army will set foot is the core of Chinese civilization, and the Erlitou civilization two thousand years ago took root here.
It's a pity that thousands of years have passed, and these people can no longer know the greatness of this land. They simply regard this place as a perfect battlefield.
This is human beings. Without historical records, these animals that only live for thirty years will never be able to accumulate transcendent wisdom.
Zhang Nan panted as he stepped on a tidal flat on the south bank of Luoshui River, looking ahead with vigilant eyes.
At this time, due to the influence of mist, the visibility on the south bank of Luoshui River was not high. The trees that appeared and disappeared in the mist looked like enemy troops.
This cannot be blamed on Zhang Nan, but because the place where he landed is familiar to the enemy. As long as the enemy is not stupid, they will definitely block them here to suppress their crossing space.
But maybe he was really paranoid. Half an hour later, when the entire Gongsheng Army crossed Luoshui, no enemy appeared.
So, Zhang Nan thought for a moment and rushed to Dongyang Pavilion as planned.
That's where he met up with Xie Bi and Guo Mo's armies, and built a front camp position there.
The passage of time turned Zhang Nan into a fat man, but it also tempered his wisdom.
Among all the old Taishan generals, Zhang Nan's ability is underestimated, which is also related to his unwillingness to challenge.
But everyone who knows him knows that this is a warrior who has achieved great success through wit, decisiveness and agility. Any enemy who dares to underestimate him will regret it.
The army did not stop all the way from the ferry to Dongyang Pavilion, but it was very difficult to walk because the road here was really muddy.
Finally, at the end of the day, Zhang Nan could already see the outline of the post pavilion in the mist in the distance. A sentry horse came from ahead, telling Zhang Nan that they had caught a lost enemy soldier ahead.
Soon this Yuan Jun soldier was brought to Zhang Nan. After interrogation, it was learned that this man was a member of Yuan Jun's former guard and had taken the opportunity to desert during the previous march.
But I got lost because of the heavy fog, and I didn’t know how I ended up here.
He told Zhang Nan all the information he knew, such as who was the commander of the former guard army, how many troops there were, and the location of the army when he left.
After saying this, the man pledged his life to ensure that what he said was true, and asked for a sum of money to travel home.
Zhang Nan agreed and gave the man a traveling fee, but let him stay in the army. After all, he didn't want to reveal his position.
Afterwards, after learning that the enemy might be five miles away in front of him, Zhang Nan immediately decided to speed up the march of each battalion, quickly capture the Dongyang Pavilion in front, and stand there to wait for the arrival of subsequent friendly forces.
It turned out that Zhang Nan had always followed the army in chariot. After all, with his size, he couldn't keep up with the army even if he walked. At this time, in order to speed up the advance, Zhang Nan found his own horse and decided to march on horseback.
But when he was getting on the horse, he made a big fool of himself. His guard Xue Duan used too much force when helping him get on the horse, and almost turned Zhang Nan to the other side.
This Xue Duan's father is the younger brother of Xue Zhen, the former strongman of Dong Fang's army. His older brother established a great reputation for bravery when he fought at Juyong Pass, and this young Xue is very similar to his older brother and is also a fierce man.
It's just that he was too violent this time. Zhang Nan had a round belly and finally turned over from the side.
As soon as he sat down, he cursed:
"Kid, do you want to die? Could you be gentler on someone with my size?"
Xue Duan was stunned, his face flushed.
After Zhang Nan scolded Xue Duan happily, he then nimbly drove his horse to catch up with the team. In front, there were many spears and soldiers in front.
It was also here that Zhang Nan learned for the first time that his opponent in this battle was a man named Zhang He.
Unexpectedly, they still have the same surname.
……
At the beginning of the morning, it is probably the time when people need to eat early in the day, but Zhang He's former guards were still eating some solid food, not knowing whether to continue moving forward.
At this time, the sky began to get brighter, clouds began to appear one after another, and from time to time some gentle wind blew over, bringing coolness to these Yuan Jun.
I have to say that today is indeed a good time for a decisive battle.
The sun is not strong yet, but it can be predicted that the ground will dry out soon today, because the land between the Yiluo River is fertile and has a very developed drainage system.
But at this time, Zhang He was worried because he found that so far, he seemed to have received no news from friendly forces.
According to common sense, there should be Li Tong's army to the east of him at this moment. As a rear guard, their army was originally stationed at the intersection of Yiluo River, so when crossing the river with Zhang He and others, they need to be responsible for the eastern front. .
Now, he had crossed the river for an hour and arrived at the middle of the scheduled battlefield between the rivers, but the scheduled sentries from Li Tongjun still had not arrived.
This made Zhang He have to think more about whether something unexpected happened to the east.
In fact, in this decisive battle, Zhang He knew that his side had problems with the layout of the battle line.
At this time, there are troops of the Taishan Army in the Hejian Land, north and east of Luoshui.
To the north of them, there are the three cities of Heyang, where the Taishan Army may move south to attack the north of their formation. To the east, the Taishan Army has occupied Yanshi, Gongxian, and Hulao a long time ago.
It is said that the enemy general in charge of the east was named Le Jin. It took only five days from the time he captured the east of Kyoto. It can be seen that his troops used his troops to attack in a biased direction.
Therefore, Le Jin's side may also return to Kyoto and attack the east of their own front.
In fact, it can be seen from here that instead of saying that Yuan Jun surrounded Kyoto, it is better to say that Yuan Jun was surrounded by Taishan Army on three sides.
But Zhang He still believed that this battle was winnable, that is, at least on the Hejian front line, his own military strength was overwhelming.
The Duke of Chen's participating troops numbered more than 80,000, while Nanyang's friendly troops numbered around 30,000. The total number of troops was almost double that of the opponent.
Originally, the number of troops was only one factor affecting the war, not even decisive. But the Taishan Army on the opposite side also chose the most suitable place for the decisive battle of the large corps, that is, the decisive battle in the vast riverland.
In this way, their side can fully utilize their military strength advantage.
But now the loss of contact with the friendly forces made Zhang He's optimistic mentality a little uneasy. He called his soldiers and told him to lead the cavalry to the east to scout out and be sure to find Li Tong and his army.
He also asked the sentry rider to bring his own message:
"According to Mr. Chen's plan before the war, your department should have contacted our department in the morning and moved closer to our department. I will not hold you responsible for missing the deadline, but you must turn your merits into crimes and drive away those who may appear. The enemy is in front of you and establish sentinels to the east and north.”
Zhang He's tone was rather harsh, even with a hint of superiority and inferiority, but he felt that it was reasonable, because according to Chen Gongguo's military law "to defeat the sun in a battle, or to plan the military, those who come later will be killed!".
In other words, Li Tong's life is really in his hands, how dare An not die? After Ling Qi wrote down Zhang He's password, he took the messenger board from Zhang He's hand.
This sign has a very complicated shape, and each army has two cards: a passing and receiving sign. Only if the sentry card of the sentry knight can be combined with the letter-receiving card in Li Tong's hand can the identity of the sentry rider be confirmed.
At this point, Duke Chen, who inherited the Han system, was more strict than the Taishan Army.
Because the Taishan Army still uses golden arrows to transmit military orders and marching signals, but the reason why the Taishan Army does this is because they mainly use confidential words to transmit them, not just oral transmission.
For example, when King Zhang sends an order, all military leaders will use gold-shaped round post talismans with written symbols. The military commanders distributed to each camp a round symbol with silver characters and a written signature.
Duke Chen still uses oral transmission to deliver confidential information. Whenever there is an order, the warriors will be sent to listen to the order and report it.
Of course, those who can serve as an army sentinel are also eloquent. Generally speaking, they rarely convey the wrong military orders.
So after the sentry rider repeated the command again, he withdrew on his knees and ran towards the east with a sentry team of twenty riders.
Because Zhang He had received no news from friendly forces before, he was worried that his lone army would penetrate deeper, so he ordered each battalion to rest and recuperate in place.
At this time, he leaned on his horse and looked around the camps. He saw the vast expanse of heaven and earth, with flags and flags of various colors fluttering in the wind.
The flag with black characters on the white ground and the word "Yellow" on it is Huang Zhong's three thousand Jiangxia soldiers; the flag with double red moons is Man Chong's four thousand Yanzhou soldiers; these are the two most uniform uniforms. As for the remaining 4,000 Liang Pei soldiers and 3,000 Lujiang soldiers, their flags were scattered. They could wear any kind of clothes and put up any flags.
This is the current situation of the former guard army. Among the fifteen thousand soldiers under his command, the first echelon is naturally the Beifu knights who cannot be ridden by his basic base of two thousand. The second echelon is Huang Zhong and Man Chong. , these two armies are all old soldiers, and they were also old soldiers before Chen Guowei expanded the army. They are uniformly dressed, and their total number is 7,000.
Then the remaining Liang Pei soldiers and Lujiang soldiers were all miscellaneous soldiers, all formed by local forces, and they were all added to his account.
Originally, the former guard army consisted of 5,000 Shaowu troops led by Chun Yu, as well as top-notch Xiandenshi soldiers. In terms of combat prowess, they were undoubtedly the first in the army.
But when Zhang He took him over, first Chun Yudao was reorganized back into the Fifth Army, and then Xian Dengshi was also recruited into the Central Guard Army by Yuan Shao.
The elite soldiers were transferred away, and some local soldiers from Liang Pei and Lujiang were added. How happy can you make Zhang He?
But he also knew that the situation was like this. He knew that Yuan Shao was already afraid of the former guards, so how could he allow himself to accept another complete former guard?
Just when he was thinking this, he suddenly saw a group of soldiers to the east. They were all well-mannered in walking, sitting and lying. They were not country people, so he asked many generals on the left and right:
"What kind of army are those who serve under the yellow-faced flag with red arms?"
A staff member with a good eye squinted for a long time and told Zhang He:
"Military Lord, that is the song of Wu Duan after Liang Zouhou."
In fact, it was not that this staff member could see Butuan, but that he recognized the flag set up by that army.
In the imperial army, it is okay, and only the general's character flag is set up, but in these tribes, the emblem and flag that symbolize the individual, family and power are bound to be set up.
Some of them indicate an allusion, some narrate a piece of history, and some represent important official positions that the general once held. To a certain extent, this emblem is even more important than the tombstones of these people after their death.
And this staff member is from Runan. He has studied the emblems and flags of various families in Yuzhou quite well, so he can recognize them directly.
Zhang He himself was a descendant of Emperor Gaozu's meritorious service in enfeoffment, so of course he knew that Liang Zouhou was a descendant of Wu Hu during Emperor Gaozu's time, so he had a good impression of him.
He sighed to the left and right:
"After all, it is my prince who uses his troops wisely."
After saying that, Zhang He ordered the logistics to get hundreds of fine iron knives and send them over to reward Butuan.
He now needs to give Liang Peibing and Lujiang Bing some motivation, and Wu Duan is the perfect example.
In this way, with the breeze blowing, Yuan Jun's former guards were waiting in the middle of the Riverlands, waiting for news from Li Tong and Li Zheng.
……
At this time, until the beginning of the morning, Li Tong's 18,000-strong rear guard finally finished their early meal and began to prepare to cross the Yi River.
In front of them, the Yi River slowly flows down from the southwest, and then joins the Luo River in the north here to form the Yi Luo River, which continues to flow north.
Looking at the Yiluo River Land to the north, even Li Tong, who didn't understand Kanyu, could see the kingly atmosphere of this place.
If the capital is said to be among the world, then the land between Heluo and Luohe is among the capital. It is located between the Yi and Luo rivers, with Mang Mountain at its back.
Looking at the river platform rising along the direction of Mang Mountain, it is like a high hill. It can be said that "it is close to the river and does not worry about waterlogging; it relies on the mountain and does not worry about drought. It has wings on the left and right, and it is well established to advance and retreat."
So Li Tong secretly sighed:
"It's really a waste to use this place for fighting. This is obviously the residence of the king."
In fact, Li Tong did not know that the Xia people established their capital here, and this place was also called "the land of Xia".
At this time, the army was crossing the river one after another. According to Li Tong's schedule, the first to arrive on the other side was Chen Wu's Lujiang Shangjia Camp.
After that, they were Liu Jing's Runan camp, Wu Shuo's Jiangxia camp, the Chinese army led by Ding Feng, and finally Chen Gong of the rear army. The entire army, totaling 18,000 men, crossed the river.
Li Tong's rear guard army is a relatively pure Huairu group. Almost all generals at all levels in the army come from the three counties of Runan, Jiangxia and Lujiang.
Among them, Chen Wu and Ding Feng were both wealthy men in Lujiang, and they were personally recruited by Li Tong. Wu Shuo and Chen Gong were both from Jiangxia and were his old troops. Only Liu Jing was from Runan and was parachuted in by Yuan Shao.
From this configuration, we can see Li Tong's control over the rear guard.
To put it bluntly, even if Li Tong took the team away right now, there wouldn't be a few people in the rear guard who would say no.
In the rear guard army, Li Tong is the god.
But Li Tong did not act rashly because of this. In his heart, he was more grateful to Yuan Shao, because Yuan Shao gave him such an opportunity as a Huaishang water thief, allowing him to rise from the bottom of the empire to the ruling class.
As long as he wins this battle now, it will be easy to become a marquis and prime minister in the future. Only under the command of Duke Chen could Li Tong realize this dream.
So at this moment, he and Yuan Shao have the same interests, which is to win this battle.
As for why the Taishan Army is a team that makes decisions for the poor, I'm sorry, but he, Li Tong, is not a poor person.
Therefore, when Chen Wu's army crossed the river, the first step was to send sentries to search north.
So it is obvious that Li Tong and Zhang He coincide with each other.
Beware of the north!