【Battle of Jizong Bridge 1】
Meng Zhixiang sent cavalry commander Pan Rensi to lead 3,000 troops to Hanzhou.
Dong Zhang came with great force and captured the town of Yanglin in the east of Hanzhou. He captured the town general Wu Hongli and boosted his morale.
After losing the first battle, Meng Zhixiang was worried.
Zhao Jiliang advised Meng Zhixiang to "conquer personally" and analyzed that Dong Zhang actually didn't know how to fight at all. He only knew how to be reckless and use all the elites as forwards. Therefore, he often started with a bluff and was as fierce as a tiger in one move. However, He is usually ungrateful to his subordinates, and his soldiers are alienated from him. If we use the old, weak, sick and disabled to deceive the enemy, and then ambush with elite troops, we will definitely win a great victory.
Zhao Tingyin agreed, and said that Dong Zhang was light-hearted and thoughtless, and at best he was just a reckless man. He would be defeated sooner or later, and he was willing to capture him for the Lord.
Meng Zhixiang was overjoyed, so he asked Zhao Tingyin to take command and lead an army of 30,000 to resist the enemy.
Just when Meng Zhixiang was bidding farewell to Zhao Tingyin, the courier boy sent several letters, and the recipients were Meng Zhixiang, Zhao Tingyin, Zhao Jiliang, and Li Zhao.
The content of the letter was to tell Meng Zhixiang that these people had secretly communicated with Dong Zhang and secretly surrendered to Dongchuan. They were my senior spies, so they tried to find a way to join me on the front line to conspire with me. Meng Zhixiang Zhixiang, you are finished.
Meng Zhixiang almost burst out laughing. It seems that we owe Jiang Qian an apology these years. "Jiang Qian stole books" is not the most idiotic. Dong Zhang is funnier than Jiang Qian.
Meng Zhixiang handed the letter to Zhao Tingyin, "Please read Dong Zhang's letter."
Zhao Tingyin didn't even look at it, just threw it to the ground, sneered, and said: "It's nothing more than a divorce plan. I just want the master to kill Zhao Jiliang and me, Zhao Tingyin." Then he kowtowed to Meng Zhixiang and said goodbye, resolutely leading the army to the front line.
Looking at Zhao Tingyin's retreating back, Meng Zhixiang murmured: "I can accomplish great things!"
Li Zhao was still stationed in Lizhou, and he also received letters from Dong Zhang to instigate discord. Li Zhao was illiterate at all, so he opened the letter, frowned, and pretended to read it for a long time, and then said to his left and right: "It's just to make me rebel." However, Li Zhao's approach was to step on both sides. On the one hand, he imprisoned the Dongchuan envoy, but on the other hand, he really stood still and waited and watched, changing the gates at any time.
After Dong Zhang captured Yanglin Town, he immediately launched an attack on Hanzhou. Pan Rensi was defeated and captured, and Hanzhou fell. The morale of the Dongchuan army was boosted again. Dong Zhang was very proud, thinking that Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan was no more than that, and that he could win Chengdu soon.
Hanzhou is located between the Mengjiang River and the Luoshui River. The Mengjiang River has become the only natural barrier between Hanzhou and Chengdu. If the Dongchuan soldiers cross the Mengjiang River in one go, a battle to defend Chengdu will most likely be staged.
The Jizong Bridge on the Mengjiang River has become the focus of competition between the two sides. The "Battle of Jizong Bridge" will become an important turning point in the civil war between Sichuan and Sichuan, and both sides attach great importance to it.
Meng Zhixiang gave full play to his advantages and used his best skills - writing slogans to boost his own morale and dismantle the enemy's fighting spirit, emphasizing that this was an unjust war of aggression launched by Dong Zhang, the "traitor" of the imperial court and the national traitor. .
He spoke impassionedly and with great literary talent. I don’t know whether it was due to being too excited or too nervous. There was a clerical error in the first sentence of this appeal, and the word "Dong" in "Dong Zhang" was mistakenly written as the word "Chong".
While Meng Zhixiang was still immersed in embarrassment, Secretary Li Hao congratulated Meng Zhixiang. Not only did he congratulate him, he also pulled other staff to congratulate Meng Zhixiang.
Meng Zhixiang looked slightly displeased and said: "Now that we are facing a war, the outcome is unpredictable, so why should we be happy?"
Li Hao explained: "The word 'Dong' is the word 'heavy' below the prefix "Cao". Now, my lord, you have inadvertently removed the prefix "Cao". This is God's will!"
"What providence?"
"Dong Zhang is headless! This is a sign that our army will win. Of course I want to congratulate him!"
There is nothing wrong with this flattery that appeals to both refined and popular tastes. Meng Zhixiang immediately became happy and deliberately distributed this "headless director" version of the document to the front line to boost morale.
Dong Zhang was puzzled by this operation, because if "Meng" was mistakenly written as "Zi" or "Dan", it would appear too artificial and unnatural. Otherwise, Dong Zhang could use "cutting Meng in half" to fight back against "headless Dong".
The lust of the mind is the lust of the mind, and the pleasure of the mouth is the pleasure of the mouth. The keyboard warrior cannot kill Dong Zhang.
Meng Zhixiang left Zhao Jiliang and Gao Jingrou behind in Chengdu, while he personally led eight thousand elite "imperial troops to march" and arrived at Mimo Town (south of Jizong Bridge); Zhao Tingyin led the vanguard to continue north and build a first line north of Mimo Town. line of defense.
At dawn the next day, Zhao Tingyin led his troops forward and built a position directly on Jizong Bridge; combat commander Zhang Gongduo formed a second line of defense behind Zhao Tingyin.
In this way, three lines of defense were formed from the preset battlefield Jizong Bridge to Meng Zhixiang's main force, forming a powerful strategic depth and preparing for the war.
Near noon, Dong Zhang also personally led the main army to approach slowly.
Meng Zhixiang asked the Dongchuan surrender soldiers who had previously surrendered to wear bright and splendid embroidered uniforms, hold letters of persuasion to surrender, and go to the Dongchuan formation to induce surrender and undermine the enemy's morale. Dong Zhang replied: "The matter has come to this, like an arrow leaving the string, there is no turning back!"
Meng Zhixiang did not hide far away in the Mimo Town position, but personally came to the front line and walked among the grassroots soldiers to comfort and encourage the soldiers. It was early summer, the Sichuan Basin was sultry and humid, and the heat was unbearable. Meng Zhixiang was sweating through his clothes without complaining, expressing his willingness to share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers, creating a people-friendly image of loving soldiers as his own children, and showing off at the frontier.
The morale of Nishikawa's soldiers was immediately high, and the low mood of the initial defeat was swept away. They were all as excited as if they had been given a shot of chicken blood.
Dong Zhang saw the large number of Xichuan soldiers and their high fighting spirit, and did not dare to compete with them, so he chose to temporarily avoid the enemy's edge and ordered to retreat a certain distance. Let’s wait and see first.
Before the war, the generals of Dongchuan underestimated the enemy of Xichuan. After a favorable start, they conquered Hanzhou and captured Pan Rensi alive. Their arrogance became even more arrogant. Finally, they had the opportunity to fight head-on with the main force of Xichuan and complete their victory in one battle. However, the coach Dong Zhang failed. Suddenly fainted. The generals were very dissatisfied, so they shouted at Dong Zhang, "Commander, are we here to bask in the sun? Why don't you attack?"
Dong Zhang could not withstand the pressure, so he was coerced by the generals and issued the order to attack.
As soon as the two armies came into contact, Zhang Shoujin, the commander-in-chief of Dongchuan's right wing, surrendered voluntarily and revealed an important military information: Dong Zhang had brought out all the armed forces of Dongchuan, and that was all in front of him, with no follow-up support!
As soon as the battle started, Dongchuan's right wing collapsed and told Meng Zhixiang all about Dongchuan. However, Dong Zhang's Dongchuan Army should not be underestimated after all. His style of play was to start at the beginning and end at the end, concentrating the most elite troops and charging without thinking with big moves. The victory or defeat depended entirely on the first wave of charges.
Can Meng Zhixiang withstand it?
