Mengjin ferry, Wei army camp.
Master Sima and Xiahou Ba are both frowning now.
Fuzhou across the river was occupied by Shu bandits, and the grain route was cut off.
After such a long confrontation, Mengjin Ferry has turned into a semi-military fortress. When the Wei army captured this place, in addition to confiscating the military rations that Zhang Yi had no time to transport away, he also transported a batch of military rations to Mengjin. Du stocked up. Otherwise, the current military morale may be scattered.
But it is definitely not a problem if it continues for so long. Poor food transportation is a taboo anywhere.
For this reason, we must find ways to restore the smooth flow of food channels.
Generally speaking, there are two ways.
One of them is to avoid the Hexin Prefecture area, transport grain across the river from other waters of the Yellow River, and then deliver it to Mengjin Ferry. This is not realistic.
First, it is because the terrain conditions along the Yellow River and the hydrological conditions of the Yellow River are relatively complex.
The Yellow River is not a small river. You can easily cross it by just finding a boat, and you can go ashore wherever you want. You must find a place with gentle terrain and slow water flow to dock in order to carry out the duty of transporting military rations.
Obviously, it is not that easy to find such a place near Mengjindu.
Second, the Wei army only had ferries and did not have enough naval forces.
Even if military supplies can be transported from the north bank to the south bank of the Yellow River by bypassing Hexinzhou, the ferry takes too long to travel in the Yellow River and cannot effectively avoid the harassment of the Yellow River navy by the Shu thieves. Even if it can transport a certain amount The military rations were transported across the river, but the losses were not less than those transported across the bank.
Unless it was absolutely necessary, neither Sima Shi nor Xiahou Ba wanted to use this extreme life-extending method to transport military rations.
Therefore, the two people discussed for a long time, and finally decided to use the second method-to counterattack Hexin State, regain control here, and reopen the grain channel.
In this way, we are actually very confident. After all, the Wei army initially arranged for two thousand people to defend Hexin Prefecture. Although it has been captured by the Shu thieves, it is impossible for the Shu thieves to suffer no losses in the battle.
As for Hexin Prefecture, it is not convenient to supply supplies. The Shu thieves have just occupied it and there is no time to repair the defense facilities. At this time, as long as they counterattack in time, it is not impossible to recapture it.
Therefore, Sima Division discussed with Xiahou Ba and decided to personally lead the counterattack on Hexin Prefecture, while Xiahou Ba stayed to command the defense of Mengjindu.
According to Sima Shi's prediction, after the Shu thieves occupied Hexin Prefecture and cut off their own food routes, Zhang Xi would inevitably launch a frontal offensive to contain the defenders of Mengjindu and prevent his own troops from dividing their troops to counterattack Hexin Prefecture. Therefore, Frontal combat cannot be taken lightly.
After completing such a simple division of labor, Sima Division personally led 10,000 soldiers, divided into three groups, and set out from Mengjin Ferry to counterattack Hexin Prefecture.
The reason why they have to march in three ways is not because Sima's troops are prolific. It's simply because there is no naval force on their side, only ferries of different sizes.
If we can't rely on multiple attacks to disperse the strength of Huang Quan's Yellow River navy, and only rely on crossing the river all the way, we will definitely be defeated by Huang Quan's Yellow River navy halfway across the river.
The purpose of dividing the troops was to contain Huang Quan's Yellow River Navy. As for the 10,000 soldiers who could actually land in Hexin Prefecture and participate in the attack, Sima Division himself was not sure how many there were, so he had to bring more.
Sure enough, there were 10,000 soldiers when they set out, but the Wei army that actually arrived in Hexin Prefecture to participate in the attack only had more than 4,000 soldiers. Not all of the remaining soldiers were lost in the battle. Only more than 1,000 people were really lost in the battle, and the remaining Most of the soldiers returned to Mengjin Ferry by boat after being unable to break through the interception of the Yellow River navy.
After all, Huang Quan didn't have many naval forces, and he couldn't completely block the water of the Yellow River, and he didn't dare to get too close to the direction of Mengjin Crossing. After all, the Wei army's riverside crossbows and crossbowmen were not vegetarians.
Therefore, despite Huang Quan's constant harassment, more than 4,000 Wei troops attacked Hexin Prefecture this time and attacked the temporary camps established by Meng Da and Liu Yin.
At this time, Meng Da and Liu Yin had no choice but to bravely fight.
Although, Wang Chang's plan sounded very feasible, but after it was actually implemented, the two of them discovered that it was actually quite a scam.
The formation of Hexin Prefecture is actually caused by the continuous deposition of sediment from the upper reaches of the Yellow River when it enters the relatively gentle waters of Mengjindu. Although the Yellow River in this era was not at the level of later generations, the sand content is no longer considered Low.
Therefore, there are only some grasses and shrubs in this river state, and there are no tall enough trees at all.
After the Wei army occupied this Hexin Prefecture, in order to avoid the attack of the Yellow River navy and the need to transport food, they used it as a temporary transfer station and established a camp here. However, due to the lack of wood, the camp above was The wall is only about the height of a person.
This is a good thing and a bad thing.
The good thing is that when Meng Da and Liu Yin led their troops to Hexin Prefecture and launched an attack on the Wei army camp, due to the lack of effective defensive measures, the Wei army had no fighting spirit, and the two men easily defeated and integrated them. captured part of the Wei army.
The bad part is that now the offensive and defensive situation has changed. It is their turn to defend, and the Wei army leads the army to attack.
And the terrible thing is that this time the Wei army's attack was led by Sima Shi himself.
Fighting in such a place with little cover and nothing for defense, the morale of the soldiers played a big role.
Meng Da and Liu Yin were able to easily defeat the Wei army in Hexin Prefecture. It was because the Wei army's captain who stayed here was timid in the battle and was unable to deal with it, which led to the disorganization of the army. This allowed the two to succeed in the battle.
But now, they are defending, and the Sima Division's offensive commander is personally on the front line. Needless to say, the Wei army at least has no problems with its morale.
In terms of military strength, the gap between the two sides is not large.
Mengda attacked with 5,000 men, but lost some in the battle, which was about 4,000 men.
As for the nearly 1,000 defeated Wei troops who had been collected, it would be a good thing not to cause chaos at this time, and they could not be sent to the battlefield.
On Sima Division's side, there was also an attacking force of more than 4,000 people.
Therefore, both sides actually had no choice but to line up at both ends of Hexin State and decide the outcome in a field battle.
This is a test of the individual quality, commanding ability and emergency response ability of the soldiers on both sides.
Don't talk about these three aspects, Mengda really has some advantages here.
Meng Da led the county soldiers he spent a lot of money to train in Dongsan County. Their combat effectiveness was a little stronger than ordinary county soldiers, at least better than the Hanoi county soldiers under Sima Division.
And Meng Da's own ability is no worse than that of Sima Division, and his commanding ability and battlefield experience are richer than that of Sima Division. As long as he doesn't waste his time and fights steadily, Meng Da will not be defeated.
But the problem is that Meng Da is a little too impatient.
The development of the battle at the beginning was indeed as Meng Da expected. With the combat effectiveness of the soldiers from the three eastern counties, and the suppression of Meng Da's personal command ability and battle experience, the Wei army fell into a trap from the moment they engaged in the battle. Passive situation.
Although the Sima Division tried its best to adjust, the gap in the quality of the soldiers was still reflected, and the Sima Division was still unable to restore the disadvantage.
The two sides fought for about half an hour. Master Sima found that his losses had exceeded a thousand people, and he knew that if the fight continued like this, there would not be a good result.
But, now Sima Division can't retreat across the river, but if it retreats without the cover of the navy, if it retreats rashly, the goal is too single, and it will inevitably be intercepted and killed by the navy of the Shu thieves.
Therefore, Sima Division launched an alternative plan and raised a flag to Mengjindu to send a second batch of troops crossing the river to support him.
If we can't retreat, we can only ask for reinforcements.
At this time, Huang Quan actually noticed the unusual behavior of Sima Division and saw Mengjindu beginning to regroup his troops. Just in case, Huang Quan led the navy and began to head towards Hexin Prefecture where Sima Division was located. Come closer.
If the Sima Division wanted to retreat, Huang Quan would directly order the navy to intercept and kill them. If the Sima Division wanted to reinforce, then Huang Quan could also take advantage of the situation to intercept them, thus achieving the best of both worlds.
But at this time, Meng Da also noticed Sima Shi's actions, and Meng Da had a subtle misunderstanding - he thought Sima Shi's actions were to retreat.
In fact, Meng Da can understand what he is thinking. He wants to win everything in one battle.
Your Sima division, as the commander-in-chief, actually took the initiative to fight in Hexin Prefecture. Now that the battle is unfavorable and the retreat is uneasy, you still want to retreat? !
Mengda would definitely not allow Sima Division to withdraw like this. Killing Sima Division in this Hexin Prefecture and achieving victory in one battle would be the cornerstone of Mengda's rise again.
Therefore, Meng Da not only ordered the entire army to attack, he even pressed forward to the front army. He was afraid that Sima Shi would run too fast and get on the boat. Then the credit of walking would become Huang Quan's.
At this time, not to mention Liu Yin, even the King of Heaven and I couldn't stop Meng Da. Then Meng Da was stopped by a crossbow arrow.
Well, a crossbow arrow flew from nowhere and hit Mengda directly in the shoulder socket. Mengda screamed and fell to the ground under a burst of severe pain.
The general fell to the ground in front of the army. The soldiers around him saw it. Mengda couldn't hide it even if he wanted to. But when he realized that the situation was not right and wanted to stand up and regain his composure, he moved a little but failed. I felt severe pain in my shoulder, and my eyes even turned dark.
Although Meng Da was protectively dragged to a safe place in the rear under the protection of his own bodyguards, he fell down in full view of the public and was unable to stand up again to take command. At this time, the former army was in a state of chaos and fell into a panic. In panic.
As soon as Sima Division saw this good opportunity, he naturally would not miss it. While shouting "The thief general is dead", he also mobilized his troops to press forward again and launched a counterattack on the spot.
The situation on the battlefield was reversed.
(End of chapter)
