After piecing together, Wu Gong managed to gather less than 2,000 soldiers wearing solid winter clothes who could go into battle, which was far from enough.
In desperation, they could only send an additional group of soldiers wearing two inferior winter coats to gather and prepare for battle.
However, this was just trying to make a fool of himself. In fact, he himself felt very nervous.
As the temperature continued to drop in the past few days, the operation of the entire Song Army camp was maintained by less than two thousand soldiers wearing solid winter clothes. In order to ensure that other soldiers would not continue to get sick, Wu Gong allowed other soldiers to hide in the military tents and gather together. Keep out the cold together.
But he underestimated the absurdity and greed of those bureaucrats. Not to mention winter clothes, even the bedding used in winter was mostly defective. There was very little coarse linen and cotton in it, and it had no effect of keeping warm at all.
Not only that, even the tents showed signs of being defective. The effect of protecting them from wind and rain was very poor. Many soldiers kept sneezing in the tents and felt unbearable cold. It was difficult to cover them with layer after layer of quilts. Keep out the cold.
The amount of firewood in the army was limited, and there was not enough firewood for the soldiers to use to keep out the cold. They could only use their own awe-inspiring righteousness to resist the cold.
But can this awe-inspiring righteousness really withstand the cold?
The soldiers thought it was impossible.
They gathered together and shivered, but soldiers continued to enter the wounded barracks because of illness. The number of soldiers was increasing, reaching the point where the morale of the army was shaken and unsustainable.
Wu Gong once again scolded the quartermaster and asked them why they didn't check these winter bedding and military tents in advance.
The quartermaster was still aggrieved and told Wu Gong that he had reported it, but Wu Gong was busy sending troops and asked him to find a way to solve it himself.
He thought of a way and sent a letter asking the rear to prepare thick bedding and thick military tents, but there was no response to the letter, and he had no idea at all.
Damn corrupt officials!
He embezzled the military expenditures that should have been used to purchase qualified winter supplies for the army, allowing his soldiers to fight in the extreme cold. Now they are not defeated by the peasant army, but will be defeated by God and these damn bureaucrats!
asshole!
Wu Gong was so angry that he had no choice but to provide a bowl of hot water to each of the soldiers who were about to go into battle, so that they could warm themselves up to some extent, and then go out to fight.
The formation of seven thousand troops was completed, and they were divided into several square formations to prepare to face the peasant army.
But as the old saying goes, if a person is unlucky, his teeth will be clogged even if he drinks cold water.
They had just finished lining up and preparing to attack when suddenly snowflakes started to fall from the sky.
This day is November 29th.
Seeing a snowflake floating on the palm of his hand, Wu Gong's heart kept falling, just like the snowflake.
Just like snowflakes melting into water droplets, his heart sank to the bottom, shattered to pieces and turned into dregs.
It’s broken, it’s snowing.
This means temperatures are about to drop again.
As the old saying goes, if it snows and it doesn't turn cold, the temperature will drop to extremely cold levels again within three days at the latest. If he doesn't have enough cold-proof clothing by then, there will probably be very few people left in his 20,000-person military camp. People can move freely.
More people will get sick, more people will get sicker and die.
It's really not as happy as hibernation.
No, we can't stay here for a long time. If it goes for a long time, even the surface of Poyang Lake will freeze. Then there will be endless ice in front of us and the fierce pursuers behind us.
The entire army will be annihilated.
We must defeat this peasant army that actively challenged them as soon as possible, scare them, let them know that their combat effectiveness is still strong, and then retreat without warning and cannot continue to fight.
It is better to expect that the temperature will warm up to spring immediately than to expect those bureaucrats to deliver the supplies he needs in time.
It is better to rely on God than to rely on them!
Wu Gong was anxious and felt that he could not wait any longer, so he devoted all his cavalry at one go and asked his trusted generals to take them all into battle, leaving only twenty people around him for protection.
The Song army attacked across the board and soon faced Gao Meng's troops.
Gao Meng shouted the war cry and wanted to lead the soldiers to avenge their past humiliation. Wu Gong needed to show that he still had fighting power through this battle so that the peasant army would not dare to continue testing, so he tried his best.
The front armies of both sides collided fiercely, with blood and flesh flying everywhere.
Wu Gong strived for a quick victory, so he quickly invested 400 of his own cavalry. At the same time, the peasant army also sent 300 cavalry to the battlefield to fight against the Song army's cavalry.
The result is self-evident. The peasant army cavalry, who were capable of riding horses and wielding swords, were vulnerable to a single blow. They were defeated by the elite cavalry of the Song army and quickly retreated.
The cavalry retreated, and the flanks of Gao Meng's military formation were threatened by the cavalry. After repeated charges, the cavalry tore open a hole in Gao Meng's headquarters, quickly squeezed in and started killing Gao Meng's military formation. The people fell on their backs.
Gao Meng's eyes were red, and he refused to retreat until death. He waved his sword and led his own soldiers to fight, desperately blocking the Song Army's cavalry.
He was a tall man and went into battle in person. He bent forward and cut off a pair of horse legs, and broke the neck of the Song Army cavalry who fell off the horse.
Under the leadership of the general, the soldiers all fought bravely, using their feet to control the cavalry, and killed more than ten Song Army cavalry.
However, the Song Army's cavalry became more and more courageous as they fought. The fierce military formation was attacked from two sides, suffered heavy losses, and was about to collapse.
At the critical moment, Zhao Yucheng personally led troops to help.
He commanded two brigades of troops to outflank the left and right wings, preparing to counter-encircle the Song army together with the fierce cavalry.
After seeing this posture, Wu Gong's heart dropped. He realized that this peasant army was very tenacious and had not been defeated by previous defeats. It still had the courage to continue fighting.
no solution anymore.
Wu Gong could only bite the bullet and immediately ordered his rear army and central army to go into battle, and started a fierce battle with the reinforcements of the peasant army.
I don't know if it was an illusion, but Zhao Yucheng always felt that the main force of the Song army coming up from behind was not very strong, but rather seemed to be suppressed by his own soldiers.
However, the army that fought fiercely with Gao Meng's troops at the beginning was still tenacious, fighting bravely despite the threat of being surrounded, and killed a large number of peasant troops.
The battlefield was in chaos.
Neither side could do anything about the other. Zhao Yucheng was anxious and threw in another 200 of his own cavalry, asking these two hundred to attack the Song cavalry bravely. He did not seek to defeat them, but to delay them and give other armies a chance.
But this task is also quite difficult. Wu Gong's personal cavalry are brave and good at fighting. Although they are small in number, they are extremely powerful in combat. Zhao Yucheng's personal soldiers are no match.
The battle situation became more and more anxious, but Zhao Yucheng could not do anything to the Song army.
Until the snow fell heavier and heavier, even blocking the sight, and the battle could no longer be fought, the Song Army and the Peasant Army had a tacit understanding at the same time to withdraw their troops, retreated from each other, left the battlefield, and did not continue to pursue.
Zhao Yucheng felt that he might have misjudged the situation of the Song Army. In fact, there were no major problems within the Song Army.
In this battle, the peasant army fought bravely and tenaciously, but the Song army was also very brave and tenacious. The two sides fought to a 50-50 draw, but no one took advantage.
Zhao Yucheng felt guilty. He felt that because of his misjudgment, the army returned without success and lost some troops. He felt that he needed to hold a meeting to do some self-criticism.
But Wu Gong thanked the heavy snow from the bottom of his heart, because if it weren't for the heavy snow that would have made this hand-to-hand battle impossible, his army would have been the first to collapse.
Because after returning to the military camp, many soldiers collapsed instantly and ran into the tents regardless of military discipline. They were obviously frozen to a certain extent.
The most important thing now is no longer this war. This war can't be fought. The most important thing is whether we can go back alive.
So Wu Gong began to arrange the retreat.
