Chapter 328 Mengjin falls
Reluctantly retreating from the tiger's den, telling the truth that the hero was shocked and killed. ----------Ming Luo Guanzhong's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"
It is said that Boning is full of favors, but the use of troops is actually an eight-point risk. Both Xu Huang and Man Chong fully realized that the fall of Juancheng was only a matter of time, and they could not rescue blindly. Xu Huang tended to be defensive, while Man Chong's plan was much bolder. Man Chong proposed that the Bingzhou Black Mountain Army would be sent out in full force, with the target being Rencheng, Yanzhou, the lord's home base. It seemed that he expected that his Puyang would be left alone and would only defend it. If he were to take things by surprise, send troops to harass the Montenegrin Army's supply lines, or even directly attack Shangdang or Mengjin by surprise, he might be able to succeed in one fell swoop.
Xu Huang is steady, but he is not willing to stick to Puyang and do nothing. After Man Chong put forward the plan, Xu Huang looked at the map for a long time and said: "Bo Ning, if we attack Shangdang by surprise, the land route will be through Anyang. Anyang has always been a zone where Jizhou, Bingzhou and Yanzhou have no control. The terrain is hilly and the roads are looping. There are too many twists and turns, and there are too many unknown factors, not to mention that there are still 50,000 Montenegrin troops approaching Huguan, and we are not sure how many guards Shangdang still has. I don’t agree with sending troops to attack Shangdang.”
"But I agree with what you said about sending troops to harass the supply line. Their largest supply transshipment port is Mengjin. It is better to sail on the Yellow River, go out day and night, and directly attack Mengjin, burning all the supply ships and port facilities, leaving them unable to do anything in the short term. Transport supplies across the Yellow River. How long can the army last without food? The seedlings have just begun to grow in this season, and there is no way to grab food. How much food can Lu Bu have to supply the Montenegrin army? In this way, the Montenegrin army will be in chaos without fighting, and Xun Wenruo will have time to calm down Arrangement, deal with Wu Mou Lu Bu first."
Man Chong heard what Xu Huang said was reasonable and nodded in approval, and the strategy of attacking Meng Jin was decided. Next, he divided his forces. Xu Huang led 20,000 soldiers to establish martial law at the ferry, and began to secretly organize the expeditionary force to board the ship. They brought more saltpeter rockets and a lot of kerosene, and made preparations secretly.
Two weeks later, on a bright spring morning, news came that Juancheng had been lost. Wang Cai resisted for less than a week before the city was breached. Wang Cai surrendered, along with most of the five thousand defenders. At the same time, Taishi Ci led 50,000 troops and horses to cross the southern suburbs of Juancheng, and the troops were directed towards Dong'e County, which also confirmed Man Chong and Xu Huang's suspicion that the Black Mountain Army was approaching Rencheng.
At the same time, Ding Tao Lejin, Li Dian and Lu Bu's army were strangled together. When Che Zhou led the rescue, he was ambushed by Zang Ba. Che Zhou managed to escape in a desperate fight and led his troops to escape back to Caoxian County, but was surrounded and attacked by Zang Ba. , I don’t know how many days it can last.
That night, Xu Huang and Man Chong, who received the battle report, believed that the Black Mountain Army's military operation had clearly defined the goal of attacking Rencheng. Xu Huang, who had prepared everything, quietly left the ferry with 25,000 Puyang naval forces and took advantage of the opportunity. In the dark night, there were no lights on the boat. Relying on the familiarity of the water conditions, we slowly went upstream and headed straight for Mengjin.
Before setting off, Xu Huang had already chosen a harbor to hide his warships during the day. On the fourth night, he finally approached Meng Jin without anyone noticing. Xu Huang came to the top of the big ship and looked at the brightly lit Mengjin North Bank Ferry on the Yellow River. It seemed that several ships were nervously loading cargo. They should be supplies for the Montenegrin Army that would be shipped out at dawn.
Xu Huang gave the order, and all the soldiers got on the side of the ship, prepared rockets one after another, wrapped them in straw and other fire starters, and then dipped them in kerosene. Xu Huang ordered all the ships to be divided into two parts.
They formed several groups and glided towards the ferry. Xu Huang was on the first warship of the first team, waiting to enter the predetermined location and giving the order to beat the drum.
Drums suddenly burst on the dark river. The five warships of the first team lit countless rockets at the same time, and only heard a neat sound of bowstrings. Then countless rockets flew towards the ferry warehouse and docked ships, like a The fire dragon swept across the north bank of the Yellow River in an instant.
All kinds of food and baggage on the ferry caught fire instantly. The soldiers responsible for loading and unloading were caught off guard and fled one after another. Immediately afterwards, the docked transport ships and warships also caught fire. The fire gradually became fierce and reflected the dark sky red.
The first team poured out the rockets and drove away. The second team fired another round of rocket rain. After two rounds, the fire was out of control. A docked ship wanted to set sail and leave, but the fire on the deck was too fierce. The sail mast broke and hit the deck, instantly causing a bigger fire.
After Xu Huang's warship fired the rockets, he took turns firing saltpeter and other flammable substances. The Mengjin fire was completely uncontrollable. Xu Huang also ordered people to shoot rockets at the ferry on the south bank of Mengjin, which also ignited a fire. Guard General Meng Jin was a partial general of the Bingzhou Army, with only a few thousand men under his command. He suffered heavy losses and was unable to organize a counterattack, so he had to lead the remaining soldiers to retreat to the Shangdang.
The fire raged for the whole day, and even the city of Luoyang could faintly see that the night sky north of Mang Mountain was dyed red by the fire. When the fire subsided, Xu Huangjun finally came ashore. The Mengjin Ferry had been burned to ashes, and the soldiers and porters were burned into curled charcoal. They died in a miserable state. Xu Huang felt pity in his heart, but he was calm on the surface. Mengjin was burned down in this battle, and the Black Mountain Army suffered heavy losses. The pressure on Wen Ruo's garrison should be relieved a lot. If the Montenegrin army loses its food, fodder and logistical supply base, it will definitely deal a serious blow to his military morale.
What Xu Huang didn't know was that at the same time as he made a surprise attack on Mengjin Ferry, the vanguard of Chen Long's troops crossing the Yellow River had already arrived on the outskirts of Puyang. The entire battle situation was actually designed for Puyang, and all Chen Long's troop arrangements were designed for Puyang. Taishi Ci's attack on Dong'a and Lu Bu's battle in Dingtao were all Chen Long's tricks to capture Puyang.
What Chen Long didn't expect was that Man Chong's human nature had a heavy element of risk-taking, and he actually allocated half of his troops to attack Meng Jin in the rear. Man Chong did not send troops to rescue Juancheng, nor did he send troops to rescue Rencheng, so Guan Yu's ambush on the south bank was completely useless. As soon as Chen Long and others captured Juancheng, he immediately ordered Guan Yu's army to choose a place to cross the river and secretly lurk to the east of Puyang. Guan Yu crossed the river during the day, and Xu Huang's boat passed by Guan Yu's crossing point at night. The two troops rushed toward their goals by accident, but no one noticed the other.
Almost at the same time that the fire at Mengjin Ferry was burned down, Chen Long's troops arrived in the suburbs of Puyang. They no longer concealed their presence, and with an army of 70,000, they began to attack Puyang City at full speed. Man Chong's army was completely caught off guard. Although Man Chong carefully deployed defenses every day, he did not expect that there would be a large army that was concerned about Puyang City, so the force was still slightly lax. Now that Xicheng was suddenly surrounded by a large army, Man Chong quickly mobilized troops from other city defenses and personally went to the top of Xicheng to command the battle.
Chen Long knew that he must conquer Puyang City in one go, so he divided his troops into seven teams, each with 10,000 people. Regardless of any losses, he had to rotate the seven teams day and night and attack Puyang City with all his strength. Chen Long personally risked the arrows and supervised the troops in battle. He fired arrows under the city and almost all of them were empty. Even Man Chong was almost shot to death by Chen Long. Fortunately, his men held up iron shields and defended him to the death, and he survived the catastrophe. This was because Chen Long didn't want to expose himself too completely, and he didn't want to actually shoot Man Chong to death and save Man Chong's life. Man Chong felt regretful in his heart. If Xu Huang's 25,000 men were still in Puyang, at least the soldiers would be rotated. With such a large enemy army, they were obviously well prepared and aimed at seizing the city. He never imagined that his own Puyang , has long been in the enemy's plan.
Puyang West City fought to the death for a long time. Even Man Chong, the whole army was exhausted, and the enemy's offensive seemed to be endless. Man Chong relied on his intelligence and wisdom to repel countless rounds of attacks before dark. He was about to take a rest on the city battlements. Suddenly, a young general came to the city tower in panic and squatted to report: "General Man, something bad is going on. I don't know how many troops are outside the East City. The leader is a green-robed general. They have broken through the East City. General." Follow me out of Beicheng and get on the boat to escape!"
If you want to know what happens next, listen to the explanation next time.
