I have always looked down upon the Jiangnan Route Guards. I still don’t know that after Cao Rui took office, he tried his best to rectify the Jiangnan East Route Guards. Although the results of the reorganization of the guards in local state capitals are not obvious yet. However, the rectification under the direct control of Biaoying is still okay. The defenders of Moling Pass were also treated as if they were as weak as the guards of Huizhou Prefecture. Zheng Tong, who thought he had strong soldiers and horses, could decide the outcome in one fell swoop.
Up to this point, they were still careless and did not take the Moling Pass defenders seriously. And his striker is his confidant. I don't know what his abilities are, but his arrogant personality is similar to his. Especially after Huizhou Prefecture relied on his 3,000 forward troops to defeat the guards and regiment training that intercepted him without waiting for the rear group to arrive, this forward officer was even more arrogant.
When they first arrived at Moling Pass, they didn't even send any scouts. They didn't even find out how many troops the defenders had. Under the cover of the rain of arrows shot by the crossbowmen, they launched a full-scale attack on the first line of earthen barriers at Molingguan. But hasty decisions often mean hastier endings. The successive offensives launched by its forwards were repeatedly frustrated due to the stubborn resistance of the defenders.
After most of the day's offensive, apart from leaving a pile of corpses, not even the outermost trench was broken through. When Zheng Tong arrived with the main force, he was furious when he saw the corpses on the ground and half a battalion of wounded soldiers. He directly gave the forward military attache a few loud slaps, which made his face swell up greatly. If this person hadn't been his favorite general, he would have chopped off the striker's head with a knife.
However, the striker's failure did make Zheng Tong's feverish head calm down a bit. On one side, people were sent everywhere to cut bamboo and wood and roll ladders across the trenches. On the one hand, he divided all his men into three large square formations on the left, center and right, and launched a comprehensive attack on the Moling Pass defenders. As for the small number of cavalry in his hands, he kept them all in the central army and controlled them in his own hands.
The plan was to use the impact of the cavalry to completely overwhelm the defenders' camp after the infantry in front broke through the front line. In his opinion, the combat power of the Jiangnan Guards was far from enough to scare him. The defenders have been able to hold on until now only by relying on the long trench. As long as the outer trench is broken through, the cavalry can be used to attack the defenders' center. No matter how strong the defenders are, they will only fall apart.
Zheng Tong had a good idea, but he forgot that the opponent in front of him was Cao Rui, a veteran with far more experience than him. Facing the rebels' successive charges, Cao Rui personally took charge of the Chinese army and blocked it from the left to the right. On the one hand, the troops are constantly adjusted according to changes in the situation. But the more than a hundred cannons with iron bodies and copper cores he brought over never gave an order to fire, but remained silent.
Facing the crazy offensive of the rebels, Cao Rui's pressure increased dramatically. The Biao camp under his direct supervision performed fairly well after his painstaking training. Facing waves of rebel attacks, they gritted their teeth and persisted. However, the combat effectiveness and morale of the guards transferred from other state capitals were so poor that they almost collapsed on the spot. The main force of the rebels just came up and only launched two attacks. Deployed on his left flank were two thousand guardsmen transferred from Zhenjiang and Changzhou. With less than a hundred casualties, they almost collapsed on the spot.
Before, Zheng Tong's vanguard officer just kept fighting against Cao Rui's Chinese army. He didn't pay much attention to the strength of the two wings. Apart from a few tentative attacks, no major actions were taken. Those guards could barely resist. But when the main force of the rebels arrived, they launched an all-out attack regardless of priority. Especially after a certain amount of casualties occurred, these guards suddenly couldn't bear it.
The helpless Cao Rui once led the law enforcement team and stood behind the left wing. If you want to flee under pressure, just shoot and kill them. When the battle situation was at its most tense, he even personally killed the envoy who wanted to take the lead in escaping from Zhenjiang, and managed to maintain the left wing from collapse. As for the military envoy, he was the eldest son of a certain marquis, so he couldn't care less.
If the left wing is broken through by the rebels, the Molingguan front line will be shaken. At that time, the battle will be lost. When the time comes, even if he holds two large battalions in his hands, the battle situation will fall into a passive position. At least at this time, the left wing must not let go. But after killing the Zhenjiang Prefecture soldier and horse envoy, Cao Rui, knowing that this was not a long-term solution, finally used the cannon in advance.
Although Zheng Tong is a bit arrogant, he still has a keen eye on the battlefield. After two rounds of attacks, he also found out the biggest weakness of the defenders, which was the guards on the left wing. He immediately adjusted his deployment and allocated 60% of his troops to attack the left flank of the defenders with all his strength. As for the front and right wing, he only allocated 40% of his troops to contain them respectively. This time, he devoted all the troops at hand.
Zheng Tong, who didn't want to spend too much time at Moling Pass, planned to make the final decision this time. Before this attack, after two rounds of attacks failed to encourage them, the morale of his men was somewhat low. He directly announced that the three days of indulgence after the capture of Jiangning Mansion would be changed to seven days of no military discipline. Once they break into Jiangning Mansion, they can do whatever they want. Everything they grabbed was theirs.
They can do whatever they want with the women they snatch. Behind Moling Pass, Jiangning Mansion is full of gold and silver, and there are even more beauties like clouds. When they opened Jiangning Mansion, everything they grabbed belonged to them. This guy is very eloquent, and he can only speak a few words. The rebels who had already seized the opportunity in Ningguo Mansion had their eyes reddened by his words. After Zheng Tong ordered the entire army to attack, the rebels felt as if they had drunk talisman water.
The rebels' fierce attack was met with heavy artillery fire this time. More than one hundred and twenty cannons have been arranged according to their range. After removing the straw that had been used as camouflage, Sen Leng's muzzle was aimed at the rebel group rushing up in groups. As the rebel forwards approached the trench, they fired dense, hot shells directly from the cannon, knocking down the attacking rebels in droves.
Coupled with the large number of archers that Cao Rui also mobilized, they fired a dense rain of arrows. With Jiangning City having a huge ordnance reserve at his back, Cao Rui would not hesitate to defend Moling Pass at any cost. On the entire Molingguan front line, in addition to more than a hundred cannons, Cao Rui also mobilized hundreds of crossbows. The dense rain of arrows fired by the defenders, coupled with the more intensive artillery fire, caused heavy losses to the rebels.
But at this time, the rebels were all thinking about getting rich, but they didn't care about the huge casualties. Driven by Zheng Tong, one wave after another, holding hastily banged ladders, launched attacks desperately. Although Cao Rui mobilized a large amount of artillery fire and crossbow support, the combat power of the guards was too overwhelming. Even if Cao Rui personally wielded the sword, he mercilessly killed the guard military attache who tried to flee.
After killing Cao Rui, he felt a little soft-hearted, and his heads were placed on the ground. But when the rebels attacked for the tenth time, the Guards could no longer withstand the tremendous pressure. In addition to more than 300 guardsmen, they were still fighting hard at the front under the leadership of a captain. The remaining sergeants collapsed completely and ignored the supervising team to intercept them. The military attache took the lead and crossed Cao Rui's position and began to flee in a large area.
The main force of the left wing guard collapsed, leaving the three hundred people who were still fighting hard in front of them there. Even the commander-in-chief Cao Rui and more than 30 cannons and artillery supporting them were left hanging there. Taking advantage of the chaos on the left wing, the rebels immediately stepped up their offensive and took the opportunity to break through the long trench on the outside. Helpless, Cao Rui could only invest in his reserve team in advance.
He personally led the counterattack, and after more than half an hour of hard fighting, the rebels who broke through were driven out. This time, although it was close, the whole line collapsed because the guards fled. But this time's failure caused the morale of the rebels to drop. The art of war goes like this: once you gain momentum, it will weaken again, and then you will be exhausted. The hard battle for most of the day made no progress, and the morale of the rebels was completely lost.
After lazily launching two attacks again, both completely failed. Facing the demoralized rebels, Zheng Tong had no choice but to withdraw his troops and set up camp. But he didn't know that at this time, two elite troops from the four major battalions heading south for reinforcements had already set off from Fangshan and Donglushan respectively. Using the cover of night, he cautiously approached the camp fifteen miles south of Moling Pass where he was stationed.
Although Zheng Tong said there was no progress, he still did not believe that the defenders had the ability to fight back. He believed that his losses today were indeed heavy, but so were the defenders' losses. Coupled with the small number of cavalry in the first place, more than half were lost during today's attack. Therefore, his cordon was placed within ten miles of his camp. The patrols he sent out were all lazy.
After withdrawing his troops and returning to the camp, Zheng Tong was very depressed because of his unfavorable first battle. After adjusting the arrangements for tomorrow's offensive force, Zheng Tonglu grabbed the beautiful woman in Ningguo Mansion and started drinking. After drinking himself very drunk and tormenting the two women, he hugged the two tired and bruised women and fell asleep. As for military affairs, he left them to his deputy.
Looking at this scene, Zhang Gongming was speechless and shook his head. Here and there he looks like the commander-in-chief of an army, no different from those playboys. This is a battlefield, not his deputy envoy's residence on Guangnan West Road. Not only did he find a woman on the battlefield, but he also got drunk. If this were to be attacked by enemy troops, the consequences would be unimaginable. How could he command the army to fight when he was drunk like this?
The imperial court has arrived at the two camps in Jiangbei and is about to arrive. His opponents were not just the guards and regiment drills at Moling Pass. What we should do next is exactly what we need to sit down and discuss. But he was drunk until he was unconscious, and he still wanted to find a woman at this time. Thinking of this, Zhang Gongming couldn't help but feel worried. I was thinking of calling in other generals to discuss what to do.
But most of those generals were Zheng Tong's confidants. Either he was equally drunk, or he was having fun with the woman he snatched from Ningguo Mansion. He simply ignored his call to oversee the army. In response to his greeting, only a few generals personally selected by the King of Guilin rushed to his camp. It's just that these people have no experience in uniting the army and their positions are not high.
After being summoned by Zhang Gongming, most of them were helpless. No matter how Zhang Gongming asked, no one spoke. Looking at Zhang Gongming's livid face, finally a young general, the only one among Zheng Tong's generals who came to attend the meeting, said: "Master Zhang, I think our current situation is the best. We can retreat to Ningguo Mansion and wait for reinforcements."
"Ningguo Mansion is not only a tall and solid city, but also has abundant private reserves of food and grass. The most important thing is that there are rivers everywhere, and it is at the junction of the two Zhejiang provinces. It is backed by Tianmu Mountain, which is not conducive to the movement of the army. Rather than here, it is with the defenders of Moling Pass. If there is a confrontation, it is better to retreat to Ningguo Mansion and wait for help. On the one hand, we should seize the time to gather troops and gather food, and on the other hand, we should seize the time to contact the prince."
Zhang Gongming still knew this young general. Known as the rising star of the Guangnan West Route Guards, he is also the military attache who has remained sober among the Guangnan West Route Guards. Today's battle during the day, the battle that almost succeeded on the left wing of the army, was commanded by him.
