Chapter 92 Battle against Shishan
Because ten people were tied into a team and would fall to the ground together if they were not careful, the porridge was distributed to each person. [Full text reading] The bowl Jiang Yougong got was very light when you first took it. If you look closely, it looks like a coconut shell. The cook poured a spoonful of ginger soup into everyone's bowl.
This was obviously because he was afraid that they would get sick. Jiang Yougong knew that Kun Thief would never want them to die, so he drank the soup boldly and fell down to sleep.
"Master," the soldier tied up with him asked in a low voice, "Why did the thief Kun take off our clothes?"
"I don't necessarily want you to be a rabbit," Jiang Yougong said. He also felt suspicious. He had never heard that being a prisoner required stripping off all clothes - what were the thieves going to do with a few tattered gowns? Besides, those gowns were all thrown under the embankment, and I didn’t even bother to get them.
Jia Mofei, who was in charge of logistics and transportation, counted that this unsuccessful sneak attack provided more than 300 healthy prisoners.
"As soon as the rain stops tomorrow, we will put them on the boat and transport them back to Lingao." Jia Mofei said, "If we take Route 6, we may be intercepted by the army's cavalry. Anyway, there are boats, so transporting people is fast and convenient."
"Packed together with the wounded?"
"Of course not. There are other ships for the wounded. The conditions of the prisoner ship are much worse. There is a large steerage cabin below the deck, and the grid hatch cover above can be closed. Anyway, it is only half a day."
The fiasco of the entire night attack almost happened under the eyes of He Rubin and others. The shaking light beams on the embankment, the volley of guns and the loud voices all made the general extremely uneasy. The fact that Kun Thief's firearm could shoot even on rainy days no longer shocked him. The sudden bright light and the white light beams wandering in the dark sky and fields on rainy nights were far beyond his level of cognition. He Rubin's hands and feet were cold: How can we fight this battle?
Ye Zhengfang and Yan Zungao, who had escaped, added many details, including that the enemy was obviously well prepared and the enemy's lights were extremely bright. All of a sudden, the officers and soldiers were dizzy and couldn't even open their eyes...
The entire tower fell into a long silence. Everyone is thinking: How else can we fight this battle? Everyone expects others to come up with a solution.
"Adults and students think that we should stick to the village." Qian Taichong has never found a chance to speak, but now he finally has the chance to speak. He watched several battles today from the top of the city. Fighting gave him a great thrill. Kun Thief's "sharp firearms" and tactics left a deep impression on him.
Obviously, Kun Thief is not like Zheng Zhilong or Liu Xiang. He is just good at naval combat and is no less good at foot combat. He realized that the number of Kunthi infantrymen who entered the battle today was not large, but in the face of so many officers and soldiers fighting so tenaciously on the wall and refusing to retreat, it was obviously not just relying on the words "sharp firearms".
Could it be that overseas thieves like Kun Thief also have loyal hearts? He immediately rejected his opinion. According to Tang News, most of the thieves were fake Kuns posed as "traitors from Fujian and Guangdong" and "traitors". Can such a person who has no father and no king be loyal? It must have been the promise of huge profits by Zhenkun that made them risk their lives like this.
He felt slightly reassured by the thought. In Qian Taichong's opinion, the word "loyalty" has nothing to do with barbarians. After the battle, he knew whether his "Six Strategies for the Aftermath" would be of any use for a while - there was little certainty that he would continue to attack and win tomorrow. He had already made plans in his mind. When he heard that He Rubin did not want to establish a stronghold and hold on, he felt that he needed to speak out.
According to him, it was beneficial to the officers and soldiers for both sides to establish strongholds against each other. After all, He Rubin had the support of the whole province, while the Kun thieves only had one county, and Lingao was a sparsely populated area. barren place. The 10,000-strong army of the Kun thieves was concentrated in Chengmai, and a lot of manpower was needed to transport food and grass. As time went by, supply would inevitably be difficult. After several months of stalemate, when the Kun thieves gradually became unable to sustain food and grass supplies, chaos would inevitably break out without a fight.
"...No matter how powerful the artillery fire of the Kun thieves is, they can only have more than twenty people. They can't bombard our village all the time. We have a large number of soldiers. We can spend a lot of money and recruit more dead soldiers to loot the Kun thieves' food routes. As time goes by, the Kun thieves will be destroyed. Thieves will be in chaos without fighting.”
This plan is actually the same old strategy of advancing troops cautiously. He Rubin had just listened to the young scholar's suggestion, but now he suddenly had hope: yes, it was the Governor's opportunity to retreat from the enemy in a long siege. It's just that the original plan was to besiege the enemy camp in Bopu and finally force them to retreat. Now the place has been changed to Chengmai——
But if we want to maintain a long-term stalemate with the Kun thieves here, we must ensure the safety of food transshipment. Once there is a shortage of food in the army, the morale of the army will fluctuate, and the entire army of 100,000 will collapse in just an instant.
He held a meeting with the generals and asked everyone to dig trenches and hold on to prepare for a long-term stalemate with the Kun thieves. Shishan was an important grain platform on the way between Qiongshan and Chengmai. He Rubin ordered Yan Zonggao to take 2,000 troops there to protect the grain platform and the military grain transportation along the way. He also sent aides to Qiongshan to handle the transshipment of grain and grass. He also wrote a letter to Wang Zunde, reporting that the army had broken the siege of Chengmai and captured many Kun thieves. However, the Kun thieves had formed a stronghold and defended with firearms. The officers and soldiers could not succeed after repeated attacks. They were building a long siege and were preparing to surround the entire Kun thieves in Chengmai. Mai, I hope to mobilize more than a dozen Hongyi cannons. As for food and wages, we must also hurry up and transfer them.
Early the next morning, the army did not launch a full-scale attack as expected. Instead, the entire army was dispatched to dig trenches, erect strongholds and reinforce fortifications under Chengmai City.
He Ming saw the officers and soldiers busy reinforcing the fortifications, and knew that the enemy had lost their spirit and did not dare to come out to fight again, so he prepared to fight with them for a long time. This is certainly a good thing, but if the enemy's 20,000 troops are gathered together, and our total strength is less than half of the opponent's, it may be difficult to form an effective siege.
"Our army cannot engage in a long-term stalemate with the enemy in Chengmai. The result of the stalemate is that we suffer." At the combat meeting, Dongmen Chuiyu said, "Although the enemy's logistical means are backward, he has the financial and material resources of Guangdong Province. Support, as long as Wang Zunde is willing, he can confront us as long as he wants. This will be disastrous for our finances."
"We originally hoped that He Rubin would attack again today, cripple his main force, and take the opportunity to defeat his entire army. It seems that there is no hope." He Ming shook his head and said, "Now we have to fight a siege."
It is certainly not uncommon in the history of war for a party with a small number of people to besiege a party with a large number of people, but the strength of the Fubo Army was too small after all. He Ming was very worried about this.
At this time, the special reconnaissance team sent a report that about 2,000 troops had left the camp and were moving towards Qiongshan.
"Is the enemy going to start retreating?"
"No, He Rubin definitely didn't dare to retreat." He Ming judged, "He rushed to repair the fortifications in order to confront us for a long time. This group of troops is probably used to defend the grain station."
"The enemy may also be building the plank road openly." Someone reminded.
"It's possible. But since the enemy wants to protect the food road, we will cut off the food road." He Ming looked at the map and made up his mind. "Call me the 1st and 4th Infantry Battalions."
Just after noon, He Rubin and others were planning to deploy the fortification system. Suddenly, they received a report from Tanma: Thousands of Kun thieves had cut off the road from Chengmai to Shishan. Yan Zungao's troops had been defeated and were now escaping towards Chengmai.
"Where's General Yan?"
"Life or death is unknown," Tan Ma said in a trembling voice, "General Yan's flag was not seen among the defeated troops."
"Re-exploration" He Rubin lost his temper for a moment, and the bandits unexpectedly cut off the road to the rear. He immediately ordered the Chinese army to guard guerrilla Sun Changzuo to follow his order and lead 500 troops to collect broken troops along the way. Then he ordered people to invite Zhao Ruyi and the main generals to gather and discuss.
"As soon as General Yan Shen is defeated, our army will be in danger," He Rubin said solemnly, "The enemy army will break through General Yan's troops, turn around and attack Shishan and seize our food platform."
The Kun thieves defeated Yan Zungao's men in one fell swoop, and the next step must be to attack Shishan. There are only 500 soldiers guarding Shishan. The enemy can defeat 2,000 soldiers and it is not difficult to capture Shishan. As soon as Shishan loses food, the road will be cut off. As soon as the food road is cut off, the entire army will collapse.
This horrific prospect chilled everyone present.
He Rubin immediately arranged the defenses of each battalion and ordered all troops to guard the camp and not run around in a noisy manner, let alone withdraw from the defense line without permission.
"Generals, we are now in an unpredictable place," He Rubin said sternly, "Our camp is stable, and the overall situation is not yet irreversible. The Kun thieves can only rely on their sophisticated equipment to seize the enemy first. The Kun thieves have few soldiers and little food. As long as our army recaptures Shishan and protects the grain road, we can turn defeat into victory."
At that moment, he ordered the guerrilla Sha Jianbi of the Fubiao Battalion stationed in Xiaoyingchang to immediately lead the entire army to withdraw from Xiaoyingchang.
"You will lead your troops to Shishan, defeat the Kun bandits, and ensure the safety of Shishan." He Rubin said, "If the enemy takes Shishan away, you will also take back this place."
"I will understand." Sha Jianbi knew the importance of it.
"I'll give you another two thousand troops."
Sha Jianbi just led his troops out. Bad news soon came: Shishan had been lost. After the Kun thieves defeated Yan Zungao's headquarters, they immediately returned to capture Shishan and took away all the military supplies stored in Shishan.
"Three thousand Kun bandits have formed an array on Shishan." Tan Ma came again to report, "And there are cannons."
"cannon?"
"Yes, according to what the defeated soldiers said, the Kun thieves had cannons, which were extremely powerful. General Yan didn't know that he had cannons, so he was caught off guard and was killed by the cannon."
He Rubin had no intention of listening anymore. This series of bad news made him almost despair. However, he tried to remain calm and continued to deploy his troops to prevent the bandits from taking advantage of the chaos to siege his camp. Because he heard that the enemy had artillery, he ordered Li Guang to lead 2,000 men to reinforce Sha Jianbi.
Sha Jianbi led three thousand people to open the camp gate and hurried along the post road to Shishan. Of course, such a big movement cannot be hidden from the observation posts and special reconnaissance team members. A few minutes later, the 1st and 4th Infantry Battalions, which had established positions near Shishan, received the news.
Zhu Mingxia and Xiong Maozhang, commander of the 1st Infantry Battalion, were cleaning the battlefield and building fortifications. After receiving the order early in the morning, these two infantry battalions immediately rushed to Shishan on a rapid march. Xiong Maozhang's 1st Battalion used the artillery fire of the three 12-pound mountain howitzers they brought and a determined bayonet charge to seize the Ming army camp in Shishan, capture more than 300 prisoners, and seize 78% of the grain accumulated in the grain platform. Thousands of catties and hundreds of chicken buses transporting grain. The 1st Infantry Battalion then took up formation at the foot of Stone Mountain.
The 2,000 troops led by Yan Zungao rushed all the way, and were constantly harassed and sniped by the special reconnaissance team along the way. Many generals died. People's hearts are in turmoil. Fortunately, the soldiers knew that they were going to the safe direction of Qiongshan. Everyone hurried on in the hope that as long as they could get to Shishan, they would have more chances of survival. Because Yan Zungao had to rush to Shishan before the Kun thieves completed their defense, he urged the troops to march all the way, and the infantry fell behind a lot. In the end, he rushed to Shishan with only 1,200 people.
The red flag was fluttering, and a gray battle line was already waiting at the foot of the stone mountain. Yan Zungao saw that the enemy had not yet built a camp. There was only a trench to protect the entire army, and there were only about a thousand soldiers. But he has no strength advantage. He had seen the advantage of Kun Thief's firearms yesterday, and the chance of defeating him immediately was extremely slim.
At that moment, he retreated to a hill opposite the stone mountain, preparing to set up camp and wait for the arrival of follow-up troops before making any plans.
But Fu Bojun had no time to give him this opportunity. At 11 o'clock at noon, with the support of two 12-pound mountain howitzers, Zhu Mingxia commanded the 4th Infantry Battalion to suddenly rush out from the flank of Shishan with a company column and launch a fierce attack on Yan Zungao's headquarters.
Yan Zungao was caught off guard - under the constant harassment and shielding of the special reconnaissance team, he was unable to grasp the movements of nearby enemy troops at all. At this moment, men and horses were exhausted, and the morale of the soldiers was low. Suddenly a new force came out from the flank to attack. He quickly ordered a thousand generals to lead 300 people to fight, in order to temporarily delay the enemy's momentum and buy time to form an array.
These three hundred men were defeated as soon as they engaged under the fierce attack of the 4th Battalion, and Yan Zungao had to personally lead the main force to fight. His troops could not withstand the firepower of the Fubo Army and were forced to retreat. Ye Zhengfang took his own soldiers and servants everywhere to supervise the battle and barely maintained the order of the troops, but all the troops were still forced to retreat to the foot of the stone mountain.
The 4th Battalion was like a hammer, and the 1st Battalion formed in horizontal formation at the foot of the mountain was an anvil. These more than a thousand hungry and tired soldiers could not withstand such front and rear attacks, and the entire army was crushed to pieces at the foot of the stone mountain. The remaining 700 to 800 people were all taken as prisoners. Only the stragglers escaped.
Xiong Maozhang sat on the low wall built at the foot of the stone mountain and smoked a pipe. His soldiers took off their arms and were digging trenches. The trenches must be further deepened and widened to effectively contain the enemy's impact. The ground in the distance was piled with swords, guns, weapons, armor and flags seized from the battlefield. The naked prisoners tied into strings were being escorted towards the original Ming army camp on the mountain. It is now the temporary headquarters of the 2 battalions.
Zhu Mingxia galloped back and forth on a captured maroon-red Mongolian horse. It was a general's mount and was very impressive. Zhu Mingxia has dark skin and a shaved head. Looks very capable. What hangs on his waist is not the standard Fubo Army Sixth Army officer's command knife, but a folding patterned steel Tang knife that he customized in the old time and space, and it is beautifully decorated.
"This horse is good." He rode the horse to the low wall, turned over and dismounted, "but the harness is not good, and I am not used to the old-fashioned saddle."
"We are infantry officers," Xiong Maozhang blew out smoke rings. "You should not be a dragoon."
"I wish I had a horse." Zhu Mingxia patted the horse regretfully and asked a captured officer and soldier groom to take the horse away and send it to the village on the mountain.
"It was said on the radio that 5,000 more officers and soldiers have arrived, with 3,000 in front and 2,000 in the back to support them. There are 1,800 of us in total, and we just suffered 100 casualties."
"It's not a big problem." Zhu Mingxia opened his map bag and spread out the map. "The enemy was anxious and used the most taboo tactic of adding fuel to the fire. We will continue to beat him and wait for work. Three thousand versus one thousand eighty, we still have a chance of winning. of."
Generally speaking, the tactics remain unchanged. The 1st Infantry Battalion relied on simple field fortifications to hold on, attracting officers and soldiers to attack the front. After the battle entered a stalemate, the 4th Infantry Battalion came out from the rear and directly swept its flanks, severely damaging and defeating it. As long as there is a strong shield against the officers and soldiers by the special reconnaissance team, it will be difficult for the officers and soldiers to achieve such simple tactical cooperation. They could only rush towards the 1st Battalion's preset position like a blind man riding a blind horse and then smash their heads and bleed.
"As long as we don't let them go to Qiongshan, we don't need to annihilate them all, and there is no need to rush to capture the prisoners - we can't deal with them if we capture too many. At this time, the official and military camp is still there, so let the defeated soldiers escape to Chengmai and let He Rubin Send someone to contain him. If he cripples his troops, the frightened bird will be of no use at all. Instead, it will drag down the morale of his entire army."
"That's it." Xiong Maozhang nodded, "How much ammunition do you have now? I don't have much ammunition anymore. Each infantry only has a hundred bullets."
"I will give you twenty evenly. I am an assault force, and fifty is enough for each person. When the time comes, I will see the red with my bayonet." Zhu Mingxia said and wrote a note to the orderly: "Go, give it to the battalion quartermaster, let He immediately sent 20,000 bullets."
"It's a pity that there are not enough artillery shells, and we are still a little short of people."
Although the four 12-pound mountain howitzers that played a decisive role in the battle were light and could be easily dragged by a few people, they contained a lot of shells and gunpowder, and more than half of them had been consumed in the battle just now.
"It's okay, there are still grenades." Zhu Mingxia was very confident. In his opinion, having cannons would make the battle smoother and cause fewer casualties, but there was no suspense about the outcome of the battle.
"Two battalion commanders found the body of the Ming army general." A corporal came to report in a hurry.
"Oh? Go take a look." Zhu Mingxia suddenly became energetic, and the two of them walked towards the health team who was cleaning the battlefield.
An armored corpse was lying on a stretcher. He looked about thirty or forty years old. The armor on his body was very delicate. It should be a type of scale armor. It was not the rough armor worn by infantry that was just made up of iron sheets. He and Xiong Maozhang knew little about armor, but judging from the patterns, decorations and trimmings of the armor, The brocade knew that this armor could not be worn by ordinary officers. It must be a general.
At that moment, several people were recruited from among the surrendered soldiers and generals to identify him, and they soon recognized that this was Huizhou General Yan Zunniao who had come to reinforce the grain platform. a! ~!
