Zhao Hui quickly led the Han army towards Fengxiang.
The weather has been cooler recently, and although the sun is bright, it is no longer as unbearable as before. No wonder China has always loved to fight in autumn. At this time, marching is no longer so painful, and even the steps underfoot are much lighter.
Qishan County is only more than forty miles away from Fengxiang Mansion, and it took the army only one day to approach Fengxiang Mansion. Guo Xin rode on his horse and looked into the distance. The mountains to the south, north and west were all vaguely visible. Only the east behind him was an endless wilderness. If you keep walking, you can return to Chang'an by the same route. Even he could realize that the Fengxiang area under his feet was in a good position to win. It should be guarding Guanzhong and defending the important town in the northwest and Hanzhong directions.
Approaching Fengxiang Mansion, many villages and large areas of crop land began to appear in front of Guo Xin and others. At this moment, intelligence suddenly came from Tangqi in front, saying that a large number of Fengxiang troops were coming out of the city to the west, and seemed to be forming an array on the bank of the Donggou River east of Fengxiang Mansion.
Zhao Hui did not order the army to stop, but only called Guo Xin and several people to discuss countermeasures.
When they arrived at the central army, they saw Zhao Hui riding on a horse, surrounded by a circle of generals, asking the scouts for details ahead. After waiting for everyone to gather, Zhao Hui dismissed the scouts, looked back at the generals and said: "The width of the Donggou River is only two feet. Wang Jingchong wants to form an array at the Donggou River. The two feet of small river alone wants to block our army's path. , What a wishful thinking!”
After hearing his words, everyone present could not help but relax from their originally nervous expressions. Zhao Hui said again: "The rebel army dared to fight with our army in the field, which saved us a lot of time. Generals, please don't cherish your military strength and kill them happily." After that, he ordered one of his subordinates to go to cut the wood and prepare to make a building. bridge.
At this time, another scout came to report that there was a bend in the river two miles downstream, but it was only a wide enough width, and it was feasible to ride a horse.
Zhao Hui immediately pointed his riding whip to the west and began to deploy: "Zhao Yanjin immediately led two commanding horse troops to guard against the enemy's sneak crossing downstream. If the enemy's troops did not hold their position, they would then cross the river and go to the enemy's right wing to observe the formation. The rest All troops and horses will follow me across the river from the front. After crossing the river, we will engage in a stalemate with the enemy from the north, and focus on attacking the enemy's right formation in the south. After Zhao Yan crosses the river, he will look for an opportunity to attack his right flank and attack from both sides to break the enemy's formation."
After saying that, Zhao Hui did not forget to look at Guo Xin: "The Shehu Army commanded by Guo is crossing the river for our right wing. Is there any doubt?"
The right wing of the Han army faced the enemy's left formation after crossing the river. According to the deployment, they only had to hold on to the enemy and wait for the friendly forces to the south to break through. It was not a difficult task, and Guo Xin immediately accepted the order with clasped fists.
Zhao Hui reached for the hilt of his sword and ordered calmly and firmly: "You will go immediately to clean up the army and prepare to cross the river for battle. There will be no mistakes!"
There was a sound of command.
An hour later, Guo Xin led his three commanders to the north of the Han army as the right wing of the army according to the deployment. The two armies faced each other across the river, and saw Fengxiang's army arrayed three miles long along the opposite bank. It was estimated that there were four or five thousand men. Judging from the smoke raised by the men and horses running behind the formation, there should be a cavalry force.
A Han army on the river tried to use wood to build a pontoon bridge, but was driven back by the enemy's crossbowmen on the other side. The Han army did not give in and sent archers from the army to rain down arrows on the other side. Among the tiger-shooting troops, only Qi Tingxun had two capitals. The archers were also sent by Guo Xin to hold down the "engineers" who were building the bridge.
After all, Fengxiang had fewer soldiers and had to "take special care" of the Han troops building the bridge. Therefore, they quickly lost the battle and withdrew the enemy's formation.
After suffering minor casualties, the Han army temporarily built several pontoon bridges on the Donggou Bridge. The pontoon bridge is very simple. It is made of tree trunks planed into the shape of a boat across the river, and then placed on top of it with horizontal timbers, and then tightly fixed with ropes.
The Chinese army soon heard the signal to cross the river, and Guo Xin ordered Zhang Chenghua to lead the people from both capitals to cross the river first and form a stable formation, and then the infantry crossed the river in batches. The pontoon bridge has a limited load-bearing capacity and can carry infantry, but cannot run horses. Guo Xin and Wang Huan's more than 300 riders led the horses slowly across the river at the end.
The Han army crossed the river at the same time, and soon war drums were heard from the Fengxiang army on the opposite side, and arrows were also fired first. The Han army that crossed the river first was suddenly hit by arrows, and there was some confusion on the other side.
Fortunately, Guo Xin had expected this in advance, so the people who asked Zhang Chenghua to cross the river first were all infantry with shields. At this time, they had already established a position on the stone beach on the other side.
The enemy formation in the distance had already moved. The infantry lined up frontally and was approaching the Han army on the bank under the cover of archers. It was obvious that they wanted to attack while the Han army was halfway across the river.
Guo Xin did not dare to hesitate and immediately ordered: "All armies line up behind the bridge according to their units and cross the river as soon as possible!"
Qi Tingxun on the side clasped his fists and said: "General, please go to the other side to command the troops first."
Guo Xin nodded in agreement, and Qi Tingxun immediately led his soldiers across the river. At the same time, Guo Xin saw that other Han troops in the south were also speeding up to cross the river, and many people even accidentally fell into the water because they ran too fast.
The Han army that had already crossed the river moved forward under the rain of arrows to make way for the following troops to cross the river. Within a short time, they started fighting with the enemy.
At this time, the two infantry troops of the Shehu Army, commanding more than a thousand people, finally scrambled to cross the pontoon bridge, and barely formed a formation more than a hundred steps away from the shore to fight with the enemy.
When Guo Xin was about to cross the river with his own soldiers, he did not forget to tell Wang Huan again and again: "Commander Wang is better than I in using the cavalry. After crossing the river, I also asked Commander Wang to adapt to the situation and coordinate with my infantry."
Seven or eight flags were erected among the rebels. The beachhead was so big that any military strategy was redundant. The only option was to charge forward and fight head-on.
After crossing the river, Guo Xin rode up to a gentle slope on the river beach and watched the formation at close range. He immediately saw that Wang Jingchong had not sent out all the men and horses at once. There were many small formations of infantry preparing a mile away. In addition, there were There was a horse army of five or six hundred people riding horses and patrolling in the west, not knowing what they wanted.
"Bring the bow and arrows!" Guo Xin shouted. Guo Pu brought his two-stone strong bow that he had not used for a long time. Guo Xin immediately set an arrow to find the target.
Not far away, Zhang Chenghua was locked in a bitter battle with his infantry commander, but Qi Tingxun led more than a dozen cavalry soldiers into the enemy formation for some unknown reason. Guo Xin frowned: This guy said he was commanding across the river, why? Did the command go into the enemy formation?
However, although Guo Xin was complaining in his heart, his eyes were still fixed on Qi Tingxun. He saw that Qi Tingxun's charging speed gradually slowed down, several soldiers behind him fell off their horses one after another, and the surrounding enemy troops seemed to be surrounding him.
Guo Xin did not hesitate, he immediately drew his bow and aimed an arrow at an enemy soldier beside Qi Tingxun who was raising a spear. The distance of dozens of steps was not difficult for him, and the armor-breaking pointed arrow cluster penetrated the enemy's chest without any surprise.
The soldiers standing behind to watch immediately cheered.
Guo Xin then sent an order to his soldiers: "Go and tell Qi Tingxun to withdraw first and don't die in the formation."
At this moment, a fierce drum sound suddenly came from the enemy's army in the distance. Guo Xin looked over and saw that the previously hesitant cavalry army on the opposite side finally made a move, but turned and rushed straight towards him, while many enemy infantry troops a mile away also rushed towards him. Drive forward.
Guo Xin couldn't help but curse. Zhao Hui targeted the enemy's right wing as the main attack direction. Wang Jingchong was planning the same thing now, except that the right wing of Fengxiang Army was his Tiger Shooting Army!
