It's past noon.
The sun scorched the earth so hot that the bare loess burned like a piece of iron, casting a layer of low-floating fog in the distance.
There was no wind, and the air was thickened and heavy, making it suffocating.
Zhang Yundeng became more and more impatient in the formation. Even if he was not wearing armor, his clothes were soaked on the front, chest and back, not to mention the soldiers wearing helmets and shaking armor.
Hundreds of officers and soldiers took off their armor and poured water into their mouths. Even the wounded soldiers were too hot to cry out.
On the narrow and shallow Yunyan River, more than twenty corpses of men and horses blocked the river bank, making it more difficult for them to cross the river westward.
Someone shouted on the other side: "Surrender, we are all servants, we only want money, not your lives!"
The cavalry soldiers on the west bank also had a hard time. Liu Chengzong did not send more troops to the west bank and stationed the four sentry soldiers in the surrounding valleys to provide shade. Their main defense direction was to the north.
The Yunyin Team was already a turtle in a urn, facing south and north. It was difficult to move in a formation, and it was no match for them if they dispersed. The width of the terrain also made it impossible for them to exert their strength advantage in a short period of time.
Hanging the servants and cavalry a hundred steps apart would put them in a dilemma.
They couldn't even call for help. They lost more than 20 horses in several battles trying to break through the defense line.
If there are fewer people reporting the news, it will be difficult to break through the defense line of the servants and Tangqi; if there are too many people reporting the news, they will simply be eaten by the servants and cavalry.
After another hour, these people will collapse.
In comparison, the cavalry team was much more at ease. Some people took off their armor and rested at the foot of the mountain to the west. Occasionally, more than ten riders went to the side to shoot arrows. Most of the time, the two sides just faced off under the scorching sun.
Compared with them, Liu Chengzong was more worried about Du Wenhuan, who was stationed in Suide, going south.
Even when they were transporting some silver from Yonghe County, Shanxi Province to the Xingzi River, they knew they had to contact them first to ensure the road was clear and send someone to help.
Not to mention completely controlling the local government.
In Liu Chengzong's view, Yulin Town will definitely send officers and soldiers south.
Liu Chengzong has been thinking about a question these two days, how many officers and soldiers Yulin Town will send south.
As the saying goes, know yourself and know the enemy. After last year's battle, Aimu and others fled back to Yulin Town. He believed that the information on the strength of the Lion Battalion was no longer a secret in Yulin.
Du Wenhuan should realize that it is difficult to wipe out the Lion Camp by mobilizing less than 3,000 troops at a time.
He estimated that the force of the official army to attack again would not be less than four thousand at least.
Yulin Town originally had a rated strength of more than 80,000 troops, but the actual strength was 60,000. However, after deserters with unpaid wages and dispatches from King Qin, the actual strength was only 40,000.
In addition, the officers and soldiers who were attacked by the Lion Camp and Wang Jiayin were included.
It is difficult to replenish these troops in a short time, and there are countless forts to guard the border walls. Yulin Town itself does not have many troops to mobilize.
Looking at the confrontation in the valley, Liu Chengzong squinted his eyes and looked up at the outline of the sun, and said to Fan Sanlang: "Can you learn to speak?"
"Learn to talk?"
"Yes, you should remember what I say next, and then run north along the valley to send a message to Commander Cao, asking him to send a smarter person to Suide and tell Wang Zuogao the news."
Fan Sanlang nodded in agreement and saw Liu Chengzong taking out the banknotes he carried with him and writing: "Tell Wang Zuogao and King Hun Tian to run away quickly, he is going to die."
Fan Sanlang stared and swallowed, keeping these words in mind.
"Yulin originally had 80,000 troops in reserve and 60,000 in actual strength. After last year's desertions, fierce battles, and hard work, the current strength is no more than 40,000."
Liu Chengzong was worried that Cao Yao's people would go to Yulin with the letter and Wang Zuoguan's people would not be able to read again, so he had to have a verbal message.
Originally, he told He Yong that Wang Zuogao would die if he continued to cause trouble, so there wasn't much emotion.
Firstly, he surrendered to the army, and secondly, he plundered the place. If you put these two things together, he would be the only one to blame for being killed.
But after two days of thinking, he realized that it was almost inevitable that Wang Zuogai would be killed.
"The Lion Battalion has successively wiped out 1,500 and 2,700 official troops. If Du Wenhuan sends out troops again, he will go south with 5,000 troops. Yulin does not have so many troops."
The problem is almost obvious. Yulin Town's own military strength is already stretched thin. Where are there any soldiers watching Wang Zuoguan?
If the officers and soldiers want to move south, do they dare to let Wang Zuo, who has a large number of troops and is unruly, hang behind them?
To defeat Liu Shizi, the officers and soldiers could only kill a king and hang up the sacrificial flag.
Fan Sanlang rode off to report that another battle was about to break out in the narrow valley.
Han Shipan finished his rest and led more than 30 cavalry from the northwest of the battlefield toward the river, causing chaos in the formation of the officers and soldiers. Everyone was busy wearing armor, and the officers and soldiers armed with three-eyed blunderbuss and bird blunderbuss were mobilized north.
After they put on their armor, Han Shipan led people to drink horses in the upper reaches of the northwest.
The tense officers and soldiers did not dare to relax. They waited for a long time until the heat became unbearable, and then they gradually took off their armor in batches.
Then Han Shipan asked his men to start wearing armor, and the armor that the officers and soldiers had just taken off was put on again.
They didn't dare not wear it. Han Shipan and his gang came and went like the wind, and they could still drive arrows into the formation at sixty steps.
Moreover, there are a few archers who use arrows that are particularly accurate. Without armor, they can only wait to be gutted.
More accurate than a musket.
But when they put on their armor, Han Shipan just let the few armored cavalry look at them from a distance of more than a hundred steps.
torture.
The officers and soldiers even tried to dig trenches to defend themselves, but they did not carry digging tools when transporting silver.
Facing the fierce sun and the threat of cavalry, they wore armor and dug trenches. They had to be exhausted before the trenches were dug.
They could only hide in the narrow shadow of the carriage in batches and rest.
They just want to make it through the night.
After nearly a moment of confrontation, the armored officers and soldiers fell down on the two of them. The rest couldn't stand it anymore. Seeing that Han Shipan and others did not move, they took off their armor one by one.
Han Shipan and the others were also taking off their armor. They couldn't bear the pain, so they took off their armor and took a swig of water.
But the people behind were different. The horse soldiers who were not wearing armor now all put on their armor, got back on their horses and ran towards the official formation.
Bang bang!
On the outside of the panicked army line, the long-term mental stress of preparation affected the gunners. Sudden changes made them unable to fire according to the officer's orders.
Dozens of three-gang guns and blunderbuss were fired hastily, and hundreds of lead pellets sprayed out from the smoke. However, the distance was too far, and a single salvo was almost wasted.
Liu Chengzong only saw a war horse standing up in pain, and then continued to charge as if nothing happened. Another cavalryman fell down on the horse.
The war horse lost its owner and ran a few steps with the group of horses before returning to the fallen cavalry.
Not long after, the cavalryman struggled to get up, sat on the ground and dug at his armor for a long time, then slowly stood up, took the horse and walked slowly towards the west bank.
The remaining twenty or so cavalrymen escaped a round of scattering fire, rode their horses, drew their bows, and fired three arrows into the Korean army formation at a distance of sixty steps, almost knocking down one side of their formation.
Then they were driven away under fire from the army's archers.
But Zhong Bao on the other side did not miss the opportunity. He led his team to attack from the southwest to the other side of the river and hit a row of lead.
However, they did not have the range advantage of the left team, and the range of Fran's mobile cannon was still too short. Several cavalry were forced back by the arrows of the army during the attack, and only a dozen cavalry fired their cannons in front of the army.
But the effect is not bad.
Gunpowder weapons are very lethal at close range. As long as they are fired accurately, there is a high chance that a person will lose their combat effectiveness.
Liu Chengzong once saw a corpse that had been shot to death with a musket. The lead went in from the stomach, and the wound on the back was larger than the front.
Lead shot is easily deformed. Most of the time, its gunpowder is powerful enough to penetrate straight into the body.
But if it hits bones at an angle, or penetrates armor of poor quality, it will deform or even break, causing greater damage.
The biggest problem with this thing is that it is troublesome to load and shoot, and it brings greater danger to the user.
A little trained man and a musket equals good value for money.
One hundred soldiers who have been using bows and arrows for three months can hardly compare to one hundred soldiers who have been using muskets for three months.
This is the trend of war.
Thinking of this, Liu Chengzong couldn't help but sigh.
He was born in an era of change, and better muskets meant a possibility.
A traditional martial artist like him, who has been improving his martial arts for ten years, should have undisputedly dominated the battlefield, but there is a possibility of being taken away by a lead shot.
The possibility of this happening in ancient times was very slim.
Han Shipan's cavalry evacuated to Shanyin to the west, and Han Shiyou once again led the cavalry to repeat the process.
Cheng Yu rode a pony, led a dozen soldiers from the baggage team, and drove the donkey cart slowly over from the mountain road to the west.
He left a few replacement horses, unloaded bundles of feathers and arrows, removed the armor of the injured servants, moved them to the donkey cart and slowly took them away.
The whole process was extremely easy.
It was so calm that the army collapsed. Liu Chengzong saw in the telescope that it was extremely clear. Officials in official robes in the formation drew their swords and killed themselves, and the entire army formation fell apart.
This army did not collapse because Wei Qian'er seized the mountain ridge to cover the battlefield, did not collapse because of the arrears of Zhong Bao's cannons and cavalry, and did not collapse because Han Shipan and Han Shiyou charged forward and shot three arrows every time, and retreated and shot three arrows.
But it collapsed because of the supplies being transported.
Before Chengyun could get far, he watched with a confused expression as the officers and soldiers mutinied. The formation instantly dispersed, some running south, some running west, and they surrendered as soon as they came.
He scratched his head, wondering what happened.
This time they did not surrender, did not pay travel expenses or food, and after leaving behind all the troops' armor and materials, they deliberately let people know that they were Aimu's servants, and then let them leave.
Liu Chengzong rode his horse down the hillside and inspected the injuries of the wounded soldiers. It was not a big problem if they were protected by armor, but two of them suffered from heat stroke.
Most of the servants were exhausted by this low-stakes battle.
But the rewards are worth it.
There were twenty large wooden boxes neatly arranged on the carriage. Liu Chengzong tore off the seal and opened one. The neatly arranged silver ingots shone dazzlingly in the sun.
He took a silver ingot and turned it over in his hand. The official silver was large and substantial, with twenty-five taels printed on the bottom.
The baggage sentry came out of the mountain and took the silver cart. The auxiliary soldiers who had been waiting for a long time swarmed up and used the Yunyan River to skin, slaughter, cut and clean the dead horses of the army.
Until this moment, Chengyun was still confused. He approached Liu Chengzong and asked, "Brother, why did they suddenly lose?"
"Because of you."
Chengyun's eyes widened, he spread his hands and was speechless.
He felt that he had only done a trivial job.
"It is very easy for people to insist on one thing, such as insisting on standing still, as long as there is hope."
Liu Chengzong pointed to the deserted east bank of the river: "What is their hope? To drag the battle into the night and use up all the bows and arrows of the cavalry. One person has two pots of arrows, which is only more than thirty."
"The arrows will always run out. They are not afraid of the horse soldiers without arrows. But when you came and brought arrows and horses, they found that they could not wait until night, so they naturally collapsed."
Chengyun was still a little embarrassed: "Is what I did so important?"
"The baggage sentry is very important. We can survive until now because the officers and soldiers do not have good baggage."
The brigade is marching towards the western mountains. They want to find a place to rest under shade, and then find a suitable place to live to completely digest the supplies obtained from this battle.
Never waste any meat.
The seven posts of the Lion Camp were separated along the Yunyan River on the Yongyuan with crisscrossed ravines, and they spread out across the ravines for several miles.
Chengyun recommended a good place to Liu Chengzong.
Just upstream of the Yunyan River, there is a narrow valley. It belongs to Ganquan County, but it is only connected to Yan'an City by a small road, not an official road.
Because of abundant water resources and fertile land, it used to be densely populated, but since the drought, the people have fled and there are not many residents left.
The name is Nanniwan.
Liu Chengzong was happy when he heard the name, and immediately decided to lead his troops to garrison here and take a look.
The memory in his mind was talking to him crazily, and a series of memories popped up to prove that cultivating this place could be self-sufficient.
Cheng Yun didn't know why he was so happy when he heard his name.
The further upstream he walked along the Yunyan River, the more Liu Chengzong felt that this place was suitable for garrisoning troops. After this river valley goes west from Yichuan, it generally runs east-west. Whenever the river branches off to the north and south, there are three to five miles long. river valley.
Nowadays, most of the river banks are desolate, but traces of the former fields can be seen, but as we go along, they become more and more desolate.
This place already belongs to Huanglong Mountain.
They camped overnight on the east side of the river valley, and the soldiers on the baggage sentry pack up the meat. Liu Chengzong sent people to convey the news to the sentry commanders, asking them to find people.
Find the first bandits who joined the team at Tiger Yao.
He really found one, on Gao Xian's right post, with the surname Huo and the nickname Huo Xianfeng.
Huo Xianfeng said that in the past, this valley went deeper from Jinpen Bay and was full of people. But when Li Bei defeated them, the rebels were driven out in the valley and the people fled to the mountains. outside.
There is no one in the mountains now.
To prove his words, Huo Xianfeng also took Liu Chengzong to see a fortress near the river valley, saying that it was built by the people who lived here before.
Along the way, Liu Chengzong was calculating how much land could be cultivated in this river valley.
On the second night, he found the Sky Monkey and said to him, "Look here, how do you feel?"
"It's very good. The location is also good. It's enough to rest for a few days."
Liu Chengzong shook his head and said: "I didn't mean to rest for a few days. Look, Yan'an Fucheng is here, and we are here now."
He drew a line on the map. Nanniwan was in the southeast of Fucheng and Xingzi River was in the northwest of Fucheng. The two places just sandwiched Yan'an Fucheng in the middle.
He said: "I mean, how about recruiting refugees to reclaim this river valley?"
