Chapter 17: Entrapment
That’s a little more than one stick of incense (about 30 minutes).
General Shangguan Fei turned back to rein in his horse and scanned the battlefield coldly from a high position.
It was more like a one-sided massacre than a battle.
Most of the enemies have fallen.
The commander-in-chief Guan Shengyun abandoned his army, the commander-in-chief Guan Jianlin was killed in battle, the friendly forces suffered a tragic defeat, their physical strength was severely exhausted, and overwhelmingly superior enemies surrounded them...all of this came together, and the fighting will of the Poxiao camp began to collapse. The faces of the soldiers who were still resisting had long since lost the ferocious look they had at the beginning, replaced by expressions of begging for mercy. Rather than fighting, they were just trying to block the blades that were slashing at them from left to right - however, blocking was. If you can't stop it, even if you risk your life, you may not be able to defeat the personal guard battalion that is also the direct descendant of the army commander, let alone lose your fighting spirit? Every moment someone screams and falls down...
The massacre soon came to an end.
The battlefield in the twilight gradually became silent.
The lonely word "Guan" still planted the flag on the ground, and no one was going to cut it down. There was only one enemy left, standing with his back against the general's flag.
Judging from the clothes and armor, he should be Mr. Qian. His chest heaved violently, his helmet was gone, his blood-stained hair was tied up and spread out, his left arm hung down weakly, blood gurgled out from the sunken arm armor, and the long knife in his right hand lay across his chest, the tip of the knife had collapsed. It was broken, and two or three gaps appeared on the blade. In front of it were the corpses of three soldiers under Sun Jie's command. He showed no fear in the face of the soldiers surrounding him, his eyes were wide open, and he looked like a trapped beast still fighting to choose someone to devour.
The moment their eyes met, the man raised his broken blade and pointed it at Shangguan, shouting: "How dare you, a cowardless person, to fight with your Grandpa Gu?"
The soldiers who surrounded the enemy flew back to Shangguan to look at him.
Shangguan Fei curled his lips in disdain, flicked his horse's reins and was about to spur his horse forward. He gave a light scold, and the knight next to him took a few steps forward. The knight turned over and dismounted.
It was Sun Jie's personal guard Qian Zong Shi Erlei.
Riding on horseback requires one hand to control the reins and the other to hold a weapon. Because his arm injury was not healed and it was inconvenient to ride, Shi Erlei did not follow Sun Jie to pursue Guan Shengyun, but stayed with Shangguan Fei's right cavalry.
Shi Erlei turned back to Shangguan Fei and gave him a toothy smile, silently answering the latter's inquiring gaze.
Shangguan Fei nodded slightly, and the soldiers surrounding the enemy moved to both sides to make way.
Shi Erlei stood still three steps in front of the enemy, glanced at the corpses on the ground, raised his head and said in a deep voice: "Excellent skills! Please give me a name for the heroes."
The other party said proudly: "Under the command of Marshal Guan, there are thousands of cavalry soldiers, Gu Baisong."
Gu Baisong is Gu Baihua's cousin and the captain of Guan Shengyun's horse team. The cavalry of more than two hundred riders has been held in Guan Shengyun's hands for tactical maneuvers. Although it appears to be an independent organization, in fact it can be regarded as Guan Shengyun's personal bodyguards. In order to block Zhao Sanxi's reinforcements last time, the cavalry team temporarily assigned Gao Tengdou to help lure the enemy and block the attack. After completing the mission and returning to construction, in order to strengthen Zhang Ding's slightly weak defense line, more than half of the cavalry were transferred to the north gate to assist in defense. Gu Baisong led 60 cavalry to stay with Shengyun in Dayingguan.
Baisong did not participate in the morning reconnaissance of the valley. He originally had two horses. When Sun Jie counterattacked a while ago, Gu Baihua's mount was injured, so he gave one to his brother who was escorting the military advisor. The other horse had just been given to Guan Shengyun's personal guards to take away, and he led the lost horse. The men who lost their horses stayed in Guan Jianlin's Poxiao camp.
Shi Erlei nodded slightly: "This is Mr. Shi Erlei, Commander-in-Chief of the Qian soldiers under Marshal Sun." As he spoke, he glanced down at his left arm, raised it slightly to indicate, and continued: "I'm not bullying you. Let's move in. "
Gu Baisong knew that he was going to die, and if he didn't answer, he cut his head in the air with a knife.
Shi Erlei did not dodge, but instead took a step forward among the lightning and flints, and suddenly shouted loudly in the face of the opponent who was very close at hand! Gu Baisong was stunned for a moment and felt a chill in his lower abdomen. Shi Erlei's saber had already penetrated him until it reached the hilt!
Their faces were almost touching.
With a clang, Gu Baisong dropped the waist knife that touched Shi Erlei's head to the ground. Shi Erlei stared intently into Gu Baisong's eyes, then took a step back and drew his sword.
A stream of blood arrows shot out.
Gu Baisong staggered forward two steps, clutched his lower abdomen and knelt down weakly.
Shi Erlei reluctantly stretched out his left arm with an old injury, and tried to grab Gu Baisong's disheveled hair. He reached halfway, hesitated, retracted his hand and whispered softly: "Gu Qian is always a good man, there should be a full-fledged man." corpse."
Gu Baisong grinned, and after a while, he weakly replied: "Thank you."
After finishing speaking, he used all his strength, closed his eyes, raised his head and straightened his throat. Zhu Lei swung the knife with his right hand and lightly touched the opponent's carotid artery...
When Zhu Lei raised the steel sword high, the Guan Zi Shuai flag crashed down, declaring the end of the war here.
Cheers and the sound of weapons striking shields resounded through the sky.
Almost at the same time, a flame soared into the sky from Guan Shengyun's Chinese army camp not far away.
General Ishii Isao led the cavalry on the left. After completing the circular encirclement, he looked at the battle situation from a distance and found that he had almost nothing to do - Shangguan Fei's nearly 100 cavalry were enough to cope with the situation here, so he led his team to withdraw from the encirclement and went straight to Pounce on the enemy camp.
General Shi Shen did not have any extravagant hopes at first: if the camp gate was closed and the horses could not climb the wall, the main force in the attack would have to rely on infantry: forcing the prisoners to brave the firepower of the defenders to fill the trenches and burn the camp walls, and then the infantry charged, Only by rushing in and opening the camp gate can the cavalry be put to use. All he needs to do is prevent the battalions from sending out organized reinforcements. At this moment, the remnants of the enemy who were still scattered with their lives scattered in the wild were almost exhausted from exhaustion, and were being driven by more than a dozen cavalry sent out to stagger towards here. After the infantry finished the battle there, they could first watch the prisoners fill the trenches and die. When they were almost dead and the Changjie Battalion could recover some of their physical strength, they could then start a strong attack. Of course, it would be best if we could collect some heads by the way, put them on the edge of a gun and drive around the camp several times, on the one hand to frighten the enemy defenders and on the other hand to force the prisoners to become cannon fodder.
However, when he approached the enemy camp, Ishii was surprised to find that not only was the camp gate open, but there were also many fires and torches lit in the camp, and the suspension bridge was not even pulled up! Under normal circumstances, when defending a camp, the defenders should light bonfires outside the camp and throw many torches outside the wall - in this way, through the light of the fire, the attacker cannot see clearly the layout of the defenders and the camp wall. Shang Geng can use the secret to defeat the light and take advantage of it...
Just as he was hesitating to defend the enemy, he should imitate Zhuge Wuhou's empty city strategy, when one or two hundred guys suddenly ran out of the camp and knelt in front of the horses to ask for surrender. Judging from their clothes, most of them are soldiers guarding the camp.
It took a lot of effort for General Shi Shen to understand their garbled voices: Jia Lianwang, the guerrilla who stayed behind with the title of Jia Lianwang, just said to ask for help and ran away with a few guards. Now the biggest official in the camp is a weekday man. Mr. Qian, who was no one wanted to see him, had been kidnapped by everyone... When Mr. Ishii gave up his doubts and rode into the camp, he found that the ground was also full of people - masters in long robes, cooks in short robes, and doctors carrying medicine boxes. Lying on the ground with his head in his hands: They all know that as long as they don't threaten the other party, they can save their lives in most cases: Talents with special skills are welcome everywhere, oh, no, at least they are needed.
So General Shi Shen ordered to light a huge fire in front of Guan Shengyun's Chinese army's tent to inform the friendly forces of the good news that the enemy camp had been breached...
Soon after, the exhausted but highly motivated Changjie Battalion rumbled straight in.
Ishii's headquarters is Panshiying. As the name suggests, this unit is good at defense and is also the main force guarding the Luzhou city wall. Sun Jie came out in force, and Shi Shenjiang, who had nothing to do, was appointed to temporarily lead the left cavalry. Watching the Marshal's personal barracks file in in front of the camp gate, Ishii secretly stuck out his tongue: The Marshal's personal barracks are indeed made of iron - they didn't take any prisoners!
If you don’t bring it, you don’t have it. If you don’t bring it, you don’t have it!
It's too far from the city, so we might as well spend the night in the enemy's camp.
It is impossible to bring auxiliary troops in a counterattack assault. The enemy camp's cooks and miscellaneous soldiers make temporary guest appearances. Some treat the wounded, some boil water for cooking, and the largest part returns to the battlefield under the supervision of the armored cavalry, stacking the two sides together. The body was brought back to the camp.
From time to time, seriously injured people who were still alive were found among the corpses brought back. Without exception, like the wounded soldiers from the Gangfeng Battalion found in the enemy camp, they were all dragged out and slaughtered mercilessly - who could wait patiently? them! What's more, some soldiers even forced the prisoners to perform various tortures on the wounded. If they hesitated a little, the prisoners would fall in a pool of blood. War distorts human nature. Moreover, in this era, human beings are still in the stage of competing for natural resources by killing each other. They only know how to live and die, and no one knows what mercy is.
There were more than ten or twenty armored soldiers on Sun Jie's side who were seriously injured and were unlikely to survive. They were carried in and placed side by side on a slightly higher ground: in this way, they could witness the massacre of the enemy before they died.
A long-shirted master from the enemy camp was dragged over, trembling, and wrote down their names one by one.
In Guan Shengyun's army there were two Luo military advisors, the elder and the younger, two father and son. Unfortunately, Military Advisor Lao Luo was seriously ill. Xiao Luo and Gu Baihua took care of him and sent him to Anqing Prefecture for recuperation. They left the camp a few days ago. This master was in his fifties, and his name was Yuan Jingzhai. He was a scholar who had failed in many trials in Runing Prefecture, Henan Province, and was kidnapped by Jia Lianwang. Jia Lianwang's nickname was Jia Wanderer. Seeing that the situation was not going well, he ran away early, so Master Yuan, who had just "become a thief", was left alone in the camp.
Seeing the army marching in, Master Yuan felt that he was going to die unjustly: What's the use of reading and literacy? I couldn't pass the exam and spent countless money on travel expenses over the decades. If I couldn't read, at my age, I wouldn't be kidnapped by thieves when they attacked. That's good. I was grabbed by a thief while wearing a long gown. If I didn't obey, I would be stabbed. I had just surrendered to the thief, and the army came again. If I didn't, I would be hacked to death as a thief - is there any way to survive? Until he was grabbed by the collar and dragged over to write down his name, Yuan Xiucai's hands were shaking and he gave up all mental arithmetic. He couldn't help but secretly sigh again: It's better to read and learn! No matter whether it is an officer, an army, or a thief, he is useful wherever he goes! Qianzhong Suyan Ruyu didn't expect anything, but his life was saved, and he escaped again! Well, I have to tell the officers and soldiers later that I am a good citizen.
The names of brothers killed in battle will be reported by the team officer after the battle. But as long as they still have breath, it is also the tradition of Sun Jie's army to let them tell their names and place of origin in person, which can make the brothers feel at ease. The CS team stood aside and waited quietly. After a while, when the doctor feeds the brothers to drink the rice wine found in the enemy camp, they will end the suffering of these brothers in the fastest and gentlest way.
*Added title
A title is an honor that is given to someone with a false title that is higher than their actual position, similar to today's department- and bureau-level cadres who "enjoy deputy ministerial-level treatment." The familiar "Grand Master, Grand Tutor, Young Master, and Young Master" we are familiar with are the additional titles of senior civil servants; "Taibao, Shaobao" are the additional titles of senior military attachés.
The garrison soldier was given the title of guerrilla Jia Lianwang, and his position was the Qian Corps officer under Gu Baihua. The garrison soldiers are similar to the recruit training team. In addition to guarding the camp, another important purpose is to transport well-trained recruits to the combat barracks. Because forming an independent battalion in name could better intimidate new recruits, Gu Baihua asked Guan Shengyun for a false title of guerrilla for him - those above guerrilla and below deputy general could be called "generals".
In the military system of the Ming Dynasty, the highest commander of the first army was the chief military officer, who was the second rank. Obtaining the appointment as general military officer is called "opening the town". Similar to today's "army" or "division" (you can't dig it out, it's impossible to correspond to it 100% accurately), the general military officer is roughly similar to the military division commander. The post of general soldier in the Ming Dynasty was relatively valuable, with only about twenty in total. The commander-in-chief is called the "marshal".
The deputy commander-in-chief is called "deputy commander", also called deputy general, from the second rank. Obtaining the appointment of deputy general is called "kaixie". "Xie" is similar to "Brigade" - later generations such as Zhang Zhidong and Yuan Shikai adopted Western military systems to train the new army, so "Xie" was directly renamed "Brigade".
Next are the generals, the third rank. Guerrilla, from the third level. Both of these could be called "generals". In many cases, the military system of the Ming Dynasty did not have strict distinctions. It depended on the personal ability of the military leader, that is, the general military officer: it is your business how much food and salary you can get from the Ministry of War. The Ministry of War will "inspect" from time to time, which is to count the heads. , pay will only be paid if the Ministry of War recognizes it. If the court does not recognize it, you can also raise your own troops, but the cost is your own - we will talk about this in detail later. Therefore, a general can lead several battle camps, or he can lead only one. In theory, guerrillas can lead a battalion. If you have the ability to lead two battalions, no one will care.
The next level is garrison, which is the fourth rank, but it is not used much. Later, in the Qing Dynasty, this official position was gradually abolished. It gets even more confusing below: some units have the same rank as Qian Zong, Deputy Qian Zong, General Manager (also called Bai Zong, probably because of the accent, it’s all in writing), Deputy General Manager, and Guo Chang; Below the general manager and the general manager are the chief flag officer and the small flag officer...
The root cause of this confusion lies with Zhu Yuanzhang. Lao Zhu was obsessed with money and hoped to raise troops without spending money, so he established a garrison system: When the country is at peace, you can all disarm and return to the fields to farm. Eat your own food, not my food. If there is another war, put down the hoe and pick up the knife to chop down the traitors. After finishing the chop, come back and continue farming... Therefore, the military system in the early Ming Dynasty was that the military leader at the provincial level was called the capital commander (deputies were called capital commander tongzhi, deputy commander, etc.) according to their rank. The military unit is called the capital commander and envoy; the military leader at the prefectural level (prefecture-level city) is called the commander (the deputy is called the commander and commander respectively according to the level), and the military unit is called the guard, such as Tianjin Guard , Weihaiwei; the military leader at the state level (county directly under the jurisdiction of the province) is called Qianhu (the deputy is called deputy Qianhu), the military unit is called Qianhusuo; the military leader at the county level is called General Bai (the deputy is deputy general Bai), and the military unit It is called Baihusuo; there is a general flag under the Baihusuo, and there is a small flag under the general flag...
The ideal is full, but the reality is more skinny. Lao Zhu's idea of beauty soon went wrong: the military chiefs gradually collected the income from farming into their own pockets. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the so-called army had completely degenerated into farmers farming - because they were considered hereditary " "Military household", with personal dependence, was actually a serf. At this point, the so-called "soldiers" no longer know how to fight. This is also a very funny point: the theoretical "soldiers" of the Ming Dynasty actually became "people", farmers.
The hostile forces are always determined to destroy us, and the war will still have to be fought. If the "soldiers" are no longer good, then who will fight?
"People".
This is the recruitment system, recruiting soldiers from the people. Note that these recruited "soldiers" are not of "military status", but of civilian status! Therefore, in the imperial court, they were all regarded as "people". However, many people have become professional soldiers and no longer know how to farm. This is what makes people speechless about the military system of the Ming Dynasty: "soldiers" are serfs who can't fight but can only farm, and "people" are "soldiers" who can only fight but can't farm.
"Soldiers" are serfs, and "commanders" and other "generals" naturally become landlords who cannot fight. Who will lead the "people" who can fight? A professional military officer. Therefore, another military system came into being, such as generals, deputy generals, and staff generals.
Originally, this system was temporary and would be disbanded after the work was done. But later, the contractors (military leaders) quit: We are not Durex, so why should we throw it away after use? No, pay! We will make trouble even if we don’t give you money!
Then, the imperial court could only retain this military system...
This is just a rough introduction, we will analyze it in depth later.
