Chapter 866 Floating Bridge
On Bagong Mountain, Xu Huang thought about it all night, but he didn't think of a way to kill Shouchun quickly.
Under the same tent, Xu Huang fell in love with Gao Ao. He noticed Xu Huang's worries and shared his worries:
"General, the city of Shouchun is strong and backed by a moat. Even if the enemy's main force is lost now, they may not be able to capture Shouchun before March."
Xu Huang's brows were frowned deeply. During the past two days in Huai, Xu Huang had not slept well at all.
Today, he finally understands why it is easy to be a general but difficult to be a general.
As a general, no matter how high his rank is, he is still a subordinate. Although his military achievements are evaluated, there is one good thing about him, that is, he only needs to consider the battle formation, and the rest will be taken care of by the above.
Originally, Xu Huang thought that the most difficult thing for a martial artist was the killing. No matter how difficult other things were, it was difficult to survive on a hand-to-hand battlefield and fight head-to-head?
But now, after he has become handsome in this aspect, he finally understands what is so difficult about being handsome.
That is, he is the first person responsible for the entire war. His subordinates can still count on Xu Huang, but who can Xu Huang count on? He can only rely on himself.
If someone with a slightly fragile nerve were to take on such a heavy responsibility, they would definitely collapse.
Xu Huang is not much better, but as tough as he is, he can still work hard to overcome it and get used to it.
Therefore, when his old subordinates wanted to share their worries for him, Xu Huang's first thought was not to be happy, but to have this thought:
"It sounds like you still have to think about whether you can do it or not."
So Xu Huang put his arms around Gao Ao's back and asked:
"Oh, An Chen, tell me?"
Gao Ao whispered:
"For the current plan, we still have to fight high and fight hard, and we have to fight with hard bridges and hard horses. However, attacking the city is not the strength of our Northern Army. It still depends on the two battalions of Pei and Ru."
Xu Huang immediately understood what Gao Ao meant.
The so-called Northern soldiers are not good at attacking fortresses? That's nonsense. He's not good at attacking cities. So who laid down the strong walls of many powerful cities in the North? Was it a gift from Huang Tiankai?
So that's not what Gao Ao said at all. He was implying that a direct attack on the city would definitely result in huge losses, and this loss must not be borne by the elite Flying Tiger Army.
If not the Flying Tiger Army, who else? Aren't they the volunteer camps in Runan and Peiguo?
But Gao Ao's words made Xu Huang hesitate.
It’s not that this is wrong. In fact, even if Xu Huang were to choose, he would definitely save the Flying Tiger Army.
This is not due to the headquarters or not, it is directly the simplest issue of strength.
For example, the officers and soldiers of the Flying Tiger Army are veterans of many battles. Which one of them is not a veteran who has been fighting on the battlefield for three or four years? If one person survives, three of them will die in the same period.
And what about those volunteers from Runan and Pei? To put it bluntly, as long as they are willing to give them food, they will get as much as they want.
There is absolutely no comparison between the two.
The reason why Xu Huang hesitated was that he still felt that he couldn't get over it.
After all, Xu Huang is not such a cruel person.
Therefore, Xu Huang did not answer Gao Ao at the first moment. He just asked him to prepare for tomorrow's war, and then he was alone again thinking about the next war.
……
The next day, Xu Huang took Gao Ao as the front army, Murong He as the Youyi general, Ding Yao as the left army, and He Gao as the right army. They lined up along the southern foot of Bagong Mountain, spanning eight miles from east to west.
At the same time, Xu Shang was appointed as a reserve and stayed at the Bagong Mountain camp, waiting for Xu Huang's signal from down the mountain at any time.
Mei Gan also participated in the battle with thousands of Jianghuai soldiers who surrendered in the Battle of Wishui, and they were arranged next to Xu Huang's banner.
Mei Qian was deeply moved by Xu Huang's trust, and secretly determined to achieve outstanding results in this battle.
After surrendering to the Taishan Army, Mei Qian was eager to make great achievements and devoted all his energy to capturing Huaixi for the Taishan Army. His enthusiasm was simply not that of a person who surrendered.
Therefore, some people in the army expressed disdain for prunes, thinking that such traitors did not know how to avoid suspicion and were so enthusiastic about conquering the old master.
Could this be a good person?
But prunes have their reasons.
Who is Mei Gan? He and his clan are all Han Chinese, but their ancestors migrated to the Dabie Mountains to avoid paying taxes.
After that, they worked hard for generations, and finally they had a small tribe and population in the mountains.
But such an out-and-out Han tycoon was belittled as Shanyue by the Han people outside the mountain.
Yes, as long as it's in the mountains, it's all over the mountains.
And as long as you are Shanyue, then you are not of my kind, and I will kill you whenever I want.
Therefore, Han wealthy families outside the mountains often can use their own private soldiers to enter the mountains to plunder the population and enrich their estates without the tacit consent of the court or counties.
And once they are classified as Shanyue, they are incompatible with the entire Jiangdong Han people.
Although Jiangdong is a remote place, the prevalence of Han chauvinism here is much worse than in places like Kyoto.
In fact, this is normal, because although there are many Han Chinese groups in the south, they are as small as a drop in the ocean compared with the Shanyue people who have lived here for generations.
If this kind of Han nationalism is not practiced, a small number of Han people will be easily assimilated by the Shanyue people.
Don't say that Han culture is more advanced. Who assimilates actually depends on the number of people in the group. Only a broad group of people can form a social atmosphere, and once it is formed, people can be assimilated.
Therefore, in fact, it is not only the case in Jiangdong, but also in border areas such as Bingzhou, Yizhou, Liangzhou, Youzhou, and Jiaozhou, where Han-oriented culture prevails, which is quite discriminatory against foreigners.
Jiangdong side discriminates against Shanyue people, but they always find ways to attract Shanyue people to settle down in the mountains. Otherwise, they will be unstable and the state, county and local governments will have a headache.
But if you recruit people, just come here. Wouldn't it be enough to give them Han identity? But no, they were given a special title, "Reformed Person".
This word can be said to be quite contemptuous of these people.
Co-author, Shanyue people were called unjust people in the mountains before?
Mei Gan is such a reformed person. Because his family was impressed by Sun Jian's heroic spirit and because of the difficulties in the mountains, they agreed to leave the mountains and settle down.
It turned out that Mei Cheng, the head of the Mei clan, had offered his younger brother Mei Qian an important position in the county, that of a postal inspector specializing in censorship.
Of course, this can be regarded as the hostage Mei placed with the Sun family.
But in the end, Wu Jing replied directly:
"How can this reformed person become the chief official of our county?"
Then he put the umeboshi in the shogunate as a document. He felt that it was a tribute to the umeboshi, so that he could be nurtured and cultivated in the cultural atmosphere of the shogunate.
Sun Jian had already returned to Jiangdong at that time, and all matters in Huaixi were decided by Wu Jing.
Meicheng had no backer and felt that Wu Jing was his immediate boss, so he tolerated the loss.
But Mei Cheng could endure it, but Mei Qian regarded it as a great shame and humiliation.
At that time, he hated people like Wu Jing.
He was originally from the mountains and did not have much identification with the Sun family. Now that he was humiliated by Wu Jing, he naturally wanted to take revenge on these arrogant Sun family members.
But do you think this is really the only reason for prunes?
That's definitely not the case, because from a utilitarian point of view, he is very lucky that he can jump from the Sun camp to the Taishan Army.
Mei Gan was not without gains in Wu Jing's shogunate. At least through the exchange of confidential documents, he had a very clear understanding of the world's situation.
Now everyone with a discerning eye knows that the Taishan Army will surely conquer the world.
No one doubted this when the Taishan Army completely defeated Yuan Shao, who was dominating the Central Plains.
People's decisions actually come from history. If something similar happened in history, people will tend to have similar results now. And what is history?
That is, when Emperor Guangwu was as powerful as the Taishan Army two hundred years ago, everyone had already proclaimed himself emperor. And the places in Yizhou and Longxi are just small enemies of ringworm and scabies.
For example, the people in the core area of the Central Plains thought that the troubled times were over at that time.
This is history.
Therefore, in Mei Gan's understanding at this moment, the Taishan Army was the Emperor Guangwu back then, and the overall situation was decided.
Being able to jump into the Taishan Army at this last moment is the best choice for both the Mei clan and Mei Gan himself.
Of course, Mei Gan also understands that the war in the world has come to an end. For someone like him who was born as a prisoner, if he does not have special honors, he will just live in an ordinary life.
But Mei Gan still has this opportunity to make a distinguished contribution.
He understood very well why there were so many surrendered generals, but Xu Huang was using them all instead of himself.
Isn't it because Mei Gan is familiar with the military situation in Huaixi and understands the reality of Shouchun?
Therefore, Mei Gan also regarded the Battle of Huaixi as the best way to gain military merit and rise in his official career.
For this reason, on the night when Xu Huang was stationed at Bagong Mountain, Mei Gan personally wrote a letter to Meicheng in the south, persuading him to join the clan clan and go north to Shouchun, thinking that he should be inward.
Yes, the inside should be coordinated with the outside. This was Mei Gan's advice to Xu Huang, and it was also the letter of submission for the Mei clan to join the Taishan Army.
And Xu Huang agreed.
But before Mei Cheng and others come, Xu Huang still has to rely on himself.
As the King always said:
“It’s better to rely on yourself than to rely on mountains and seas.”
……
Xu Huang's first step in attacking Shouchun was not to get all the rams and chariots available, but to start building a pontoon bridge honestly.
But isn’t this already across the Huai River? Why do we need to build a pontoon bridge again?
In fact, this depends on the specific geographical situation of Shouchun.
To the north of Shouchun is Bagong Mountain, but there is also a tributary of the Huai River in the middle.
On this wide tributary, there are several islands in the river, on which several Huainan soldiers' strongholds are arranged, specifically to cut off the Taishan Army from erecting pontoon bridges.
The task of erecting a pontoon bridge and blocking the enemy forces on the island in the river was not an ordinary one.
But this does not trouble Xu Huang, because he has Ren Jun and his bridge-building battalion.
At this moment, just as the army was lined up, Ren Jun, his bridge-building battalion and thousands of civilians began to build a pontoon bridge in an orderly manner on the north bank of the Zhi River.
The small boats collected from Runan and other places were put to use. They were connected with wooden planks and formed a bridge deck in a short time.
Then Wu Jing and Sun Quan, who were watching on the top of the city, watched the pontoon on the other side grow little by little, getting closer and closer to the center of the river.
At this time, the atmosphere above Shouchun City was very solemn.
At this time, Sun Quan couldn't help it anymore and took the lead in saying to Wu Jing:
"Uncle, why don't you send people out of the city to support the middle of the river to block the enemy's pontoon bridge?"
But Wu Jing then smiled bitterly and said:
"Erlang, who else can we send out here? I will send them out. Those who leave the city will definitely disperse as soon as they leave the city."
Sun Quan was silent, understanding what his uncle meant.
The Shaopi soldiers who had been lured into the city by their uncle had now woken up and understood that they were being used as cannon fodder.
Those people thought they could enter the city without worrying about food and clothing, but who could have imagined that as soon as they entered Shouchun, they heard that Fu Jun had just lost the battle and almost abandoned all his main forces in Huaibei.
At that time, if my uncle had not doubled the reward and endorsed it with prestige, those Shaopi soldiers might have mutinied.
But even so, it's OK now that the enemy is outside, and these people can still defend the city, but if they are really sent out, they will definitely disperse in a rush.
Farmers are not smart, but they are not stupid enough to use their hoe hand to fight other people's soldiers.
So, the city was silent again.
These elites in Jiangdong and Huainan have to accept the reality that they are really powerless.
Or, to put it more cruelly, leave it to fate.
Perhaps because of the pressure, Wu Jing himself said something:
"You don't need to be too alarmed. The guards on the river center island are elite warriors under the lord's command. They have been deployed on the outside and should be able to block the enemy's pontoon bridge."
Sure enough, as soon as Wu Jing finished speaking, there were changes on the battlefield ahead.
Just listen to the sound of drums on the river bank, startling countless gulls and herons.
Amidst the intensive drumbeats, rounds of arrows were shot from Hexinzhou, shooting at the civilians who were building a pontoon bridge.
Seeing the dark crowd falling in the distance, Sun Quan next to Wu Jing couldn't bear it anymore.
He slapped the battlements and shouted:
"Kill, kill these thieves for me."
At this moment, Wu Jing no longer cared about his nephew's behavior, and shouted excitedly:
"That's how we fight."
Saying that, Wu Jing was not relieved and asked the people on the city to beat drums to cheer up.
We can't send troops, but we can still encourage them.
So, under Wu Jing's order, drums were played loudly at the top of Shouchun City, shaking Huainan into a state of excitement.
Perhaps in response to this impetuosity, the Taishan Army on the opposite side also began to fight back.
A large number of Taishan Army crossbowmen shot arrows along the north bank of the tributary towards the south bank. Some of the brave ones even ran directly to the newly built pontoon bridge section and stood on the pontoon bridge to shoot snipers from the opposite side.
Arrows were flying back and forth from both sides, and people were falling to the ground all the time.
This is a game for the bravest, and only those who are destined to survive can survive.
But destiny also depends on strength.
The Taishan Army responsible for sniping Hexinzhou all came from Gao Ao's subordinates, and they were all old Taishan Army.
These people were armed with long bows and fired heavy arrows. They killed the opponent in a short time and lost the ability to fight back.
As a result, as far as Wu Jing and others could see from the top of the city, the Jiangdong soldiers on Hexinzhou had given up shooting and began to withdraw outside the shooting range.
But these people are indeed the elite of the Sun family. Even if they are injured, they still insist on guarding the barrier on Hexinzhou without flinching.
At this moment, without the harassment from Jiangdong soldiers, the bridge construction on Ren Jun's side was getting faster and faster.
Soon, when the last wooden plank was put up, and even before the nails were hammered in, a warrior jumped onto the river center island like an ape, using a walking stick as a support pole.
As soon as this person stood still, he raised his hand and shouted:
"It's time for me, Song Xian, to make a great contribution!"