Dangtu City is a small county town under the rule of Jiangxia. The city wall is about 3 meters high and the area is only about 4 miles. It is close to the river and most of the people nearby make a living by fishing.
This is the frontier between Jiangxia and Lujiang. Huang Zu, the governor of Jiangxia, stationed 1,000 soldiers and horses in Dangtu as a checkpoint for Jiangxia to guard against Sun Ce.
The sun is scorching hot and it is noon.
The soldiers in Dangtu City were hiding in the shadows to enjoy the cool weather, without any precautions.
There has been no fighting in Jingzhou for too long since the Yellow Turban Rebellion subsided. The most recent one was the siege against Sun Jian directed by Liu Biao, the prefect of the state, three years ago.
Water thieves are rampant in Jingzhou, and it is said that officers and soldiers also need to suppress the thieves. But Huang Zu, the prefect, didn't care about this matter at all, and over time, his generals stopped caring about it.
Therefore, not to mention Dangtu, even the entire Jingzhou army had almost forgotten how to fight a war.
"I heard that General Cai Mao led an army to conquer Yuan Shu. He has already arrived at Shiting and started a battle with General Ji Ling under Yuan Shu's command. Hey, do you think we can win?"
One of the soldiers was probably bored, so he patted the brother next to him and started chatting. The brother put the spear aside and was taking a nap with his back against the wall. He didn't want to pay attention to him, but he turned around and said angrily after being annoyed by his patting.
"Oh, are you bothered? What does this have to do with us? That is a matter between the big shots."
"Look, Mr. Zhoumu has become the king. He has just enfeoffed the ministers, but Yuan Shu took the Han Dynasty's jade seal and proclaimed himself the emperor! How can we not fight? Actually, Mr. Zhoumu, no, the king! The king may not necessarily be the king. We just want to win a big victory, so we just show off, we can’t let others slap us in the face.”
"The fight will definitely be over in a short time. Just sleep peacefully! Is it possible that you still want to be transferred to the front battlefield to make contributions?"
When the soldier heard this, he thought, "Making meritorious deeds is also the business of the generals. What does it have to do with pawns like them?"
I didn't see that when Liu Biao became king, all the ministers were promoted and their salaries were increased. But when they arrived, the soldiers only got a jar of wine.
Soldiers can slowly climb up through military exploits, but you also have to survive. Swords have no eyes, and there are not many people who can really fight on the battlefield and survive to be promoted to generals.
The soldier stopped thinking about it and suddenly felt sleepy. He stretched and prepared to find a more spacious shady place to lie down and take a nap.
A black shadow seemed to appear on the distant horizon.
"Um?"
He stared into the distance with his sleepy eyes squinted in confusion.
"Enemy attack!" "Enemy attack!"
The soldiers roared in horror.
Only then did everyone who had been taking a nap in the shadows poke their heads out to look in confusion and panic.
"Quick! Quick! Quick! Report to the general!"
Several people got off the city wall and ran into the city. As they ran, they shouted to the soldiers in the city to go to the city wall to defend the city.
······
When the gate of Tu City was closed, hundreds of Han soldiers climbed up to the top of the city one after another.
It went so smoothly that Xu Tu couldn't believe it.
Ji Shu ordered the Yulin Army to be the vanguard to clear the way for the army, and Xu Tu commanded more than 3,000 people to march by land, while Jiang Qin commanded more than 2,000 people to march by water.
But Xu Tu didn't expect that he marched until he reached the gate of Dangtu City before the defenders reacted.
"Fire the arrow!"
Xu Tu roared, and a thousand archers immediately fired a volley. Being in a high position and defending the city should have a longer range and be more conducive to attack, but it was the Habayashi Army that made the first attack.
The seven to eight hundred Han troops on the city hid behind the walls and sparsely fought back.
The more than two thousand charging Yulin troops quickly stopped and hid behind the shield bearer. Xu Tu was furious and shouted at the soldiers in the front army.
"You idiots! Come on! Is this little mosquito-like rain of arrows enough to scare you away?"
"Siege vehicle! Siege vehicle! Enter! Protect the siege vehicle with your big shield!"
"His grandma's small earthen wall is only 3 meters high. Just set up a ladder and climb up. This scares you. That wall is ten meters high like Luoyang. You just surrendered, right?"
Amid Xu Tu's shouts and curses, the front army slowly advanced under the cover of shields, and the siege vehicles under heavy protection had already arrived at the city gate. What made Xu Tu feel most incredible was that Dangtu City didn't even have kerosene or wood, and only relied on hundreds of soldiers to shoot randomly to defend the city!
He couldn't help but cover his face.
Fortunately, when they arrived at the gate of the city, these guys seemed to have reached their destination. They gradually became bolder, shouting slogans and swinging the bumper poles excitedly.
boom!
There was a dull thud, and the small city gate of Dangtu let out a mournful cry.
boom!
boom!
boom!
In less than ten strikes, the city gate burst open.
"Kill!"
The soldiers of the Yulin Army cheered loudly and accelerated towards the city.
The remaining four to five hundred Han troops on the top of the city did not dare to stay there any longer. They quickly walked down to the top of the city to help the soldiers guarding the city gate, fought and retreated, and retreated into the city.
After being defeated like a mountain, more than 3,000 soldiers of the Yulin Army rushed forward excitedly to win the victory, but the Han army quickly fled.
"General, more than a hundred Han troops have left the west gate and headed for the dock."
The scouts who monitored the movements of various sects reported the situation to Xu Tu.
Xu Tu snorted coldly and said.
"Don't worry about them! Order the entire army to pursue the Han army in front of you with all your strength."
"yes!"
The soldiers and scouts followed the order and left. Xu Tu turned his head and looked towards the river. He could vaguely see more than 20 large ships, which were Jiang Qin's men. How could these more than a hundred people escape from Jiang Qin's grasp?
Ji Shu had even considered what would happen if Tu's defenders discovered them and fled without even caring about fighting. He wanted to keep all the Dangtu defenders behind and not let any news leak out.
······
Hou Cheng led two hundred people to ambush on both sides of the official road from Dangtu to Jiangxia County.
As early as the beginning of the army's departure, he received Ji Shu's order to hand over the headquarters to Xu Tu's command. He led a small number of troops to go ahead, pass Dangtu in batches, and guard this road.
"My eyes are bright! Hearing this call to kill, the army has already broken through Dangtu City. Later, when the Han army in Dangtu escapes here, they will listen to my order and fire arrows. Never let anyone go! Otherwise, they will wait to go back. Eat the plate."
"yes."
Two hundred soldiers, all dressed in civilian clothes and crouching in the grass with only a crossbow, whispered in response to Hou Cheng's words.
"Brother Hou, don't worry, I have arranged twenty repeating crossbows to guard the back. You have seen the power. Not a single Han army has escaped!"
Zhang Da fell next to Hou Cheng, grinned and gave him a vote of confidence.
Hou Cheng nodded and said to Zhang Da in a deep voice.
"That's good. You have to know that this is the first battle since the founding of the Yulin Army, and we must fight it well."
"Zhang Da, things are very different now from what we used to do. The Lord only employs people based on merit, and General Ji also has high hopes for our Yulin Army."
"The Yulin Army's organizational structure is not yet full, and there are still a lot of vacancies for commanders and commanders. After a few battles are over and the battles are over, I will recommend you to the general to be a commander."
Zhang Da said with a silly smile.
"That's not necessary, Brother Hou, I'm not that material. Right now, I'm still a little scared to be a village commander. Why don't you be promoted to the commander-in-chief in the future and assign me to be your bodyguard."
Hou Cheng glanced at him angrily.
"You kid, good!"
Da da da
As soon as Hou Cheng finished speaking, a group of cavalry appeared on the official road, rushing towards this side in a panic, and kept looking back.
The Yulin army fell silent and waited quietly for their prey to enter the net.
Only fifty or sixty riders! Less than expected!
Seeing that the Han cavalry had entered the effective range of the crossbows, a cold light flashed in Hou Cheng's eyes.
"kill!"
A hail of arrows shot out in response.
