When He Huchen received the news of the battle coming from the front, his vest felt cold.
Fortunately, he gritted his teeth and let Zhang Dingyuan and the others go up first. Otherwise, once the Xuanfu army took control of the Yuhe Stone Bridge, he would have to defend Gonghua City, which would be too passive.
Once the tens of thousands of Xuanfu troops surged across the river, they could easily use various methods to deal with the isolated city. With a force several times his own and plenty of room for maneuver, he didn't know if he could hold out against You Shigong's army. arrival.
But things are different now.
By controlling the narrow Yuhe Stone Bridge and relying on the power of ferocious firearms, you can block the opponent's path forward, either at the cost of your life or to find another way out.
Even so, the situation is not optimistic.
The Yu River is too narrow, and even if the water rises in autumn, it will be difficult for people and horses to cross the river for a while, but both sides of the Yu River are densely populated, so it is not difficult to find a few boats to build a pontoon bridge. .
Once the Xuanfu Army determines that the cost of breaking through the Yuhe Stone Bridge is too high, they will immediately consider using civilian ships to build pontoon bridges. With the power that the Xuanfu Army can mobilize, it will take less than half a day to build two or three such bridges. pontoon.
By that time, it would be impossible for this small force of mine to cover the entire two sides of the river, and they would have no choice but to abandon the defense line along the river and retreat to Gonghua City.
However, He Huchen was still satisfied. At least it would be difficult for the Xuanfu army to break through the Yuhe defense line in the first half of tonight.
If it lasted all night, he would be very satisfied.
According to the news from the Ministry of War, Youshi's army is coming at night and is expected to arrive late tomorrow at the latest. As long as he can hold Gonghua City by then, the mission will be completed.
In other words, for me, there are still twelve hours in one day and one night.
However, Zhang Dingyuan also knew that it was impossible for the Xuanfu army on the opposite side to do nothing that night. It was impossible to just watch helplessly, with an army of 30,000 to 40,000 people doing nothing in front of a Yu River.
The current Xuanfu army did not expect to encounter a pure firearms fire at the Yuhe Stone Bridge. The narrow bridge deck and the unexpected power of the firearms caused them to suffer a big loss, but the next battle will not be that simple. .
For Zhang Dingyuan, it is as long as it can be delayed. The longer it is delayed, the better.
The key now is to see how the Xuanfu army on the other side will make a move, whether to immediately collect ships and build a pontoon bridge, or simply use civilian ships to transport soldiers over in batches, relying on the superiority of troops to win by chaos, or simply attack from the stone bridge again Wave?
"How far is Zhao Keming's department from us?" He Huchen was a little anxious.
He knew that it was crucial to defend the Yuhe line of defense, but if the entire army defended the Yuhe stone bridge, what would happen to Gonghua City? Who would defend it? But if they don't all attack, the troops will be insufficient. Zhang Dingyuan won the battle by relying on the opponent's ignorance of the situation. Once the Xuanfu army reacted, the pontoon bridge, shipping and forced charge of the stone bridge were attacked at the same time. Zhang Dingyuan's few troops I can't stand it at all.
If Zhao Keming's troops can reach him at the same time as him, he can hand over Gonghua City to him and go to the Yuhe defense line himself. No matter what happens, he can slowly retreat to Gonghua City.
"There are still ten miles to go. Their cavalry forward has only three miles to reach." The soldier responded: "Sir, they are moving very fast. They will probably have to rest after they arrive, and they will not be able to fight at all."
"Hmph, I don't expect them to go to the battlefield right away." He Huchen knew very well that the combat effectiveness of Zhao Keming's troops was acceptable in the Beijing camp, but when they actually went to the battlefield, it was hard to say. Maybe they could barely use it to defend the city, so that If they fight in the wild, it will be fatal.
It was estimated that it would take an hour for them all to arrive at Gonghua City, and they would have to be given an hour to slowly adjust and recover. Thinking of this, He Huchen felt helpless.
Zhao Keming's troops are quite good, but the other troops in the Fifth Army Camp are not as good as Zhao Keming's troops now. He Huchen also came from the old Beijing camp and knows the style of these Beijing camp soldiers very well, so he also uses Liaodong troops as much as possible. The soldiers were an officer team, and Yongping Minzhuang was selected as the backbone. Only when there was insufficient strength, Liangjiazi was selected from the original Laojing camp to supplement it.
"Jichang, you leave a spearman and a logistics department. When Zhao Keming's troops arrive, order him to take over the defense of Gonghua City and transfer all their cavalry to me." Liu Jichang is He Huchen's deputy. He is a Liaodong soldier. , was also recommended to He Huchen by Zuo Liangyu, and He Huchen trusted him very much.
Zhao Keming's unit is not a firearms unit. Currently, the only new troops in the entire Beijing camp that are completely formed according to the firearms battalion model are He Huchen and Yang Zhaoji's units. This is why King Zhonghui wanted to take these two units and place them in the fifth army camp. Of course, Qian Guozhong was not stupid, so in the end, He Huchen's troops returned to the Fifth Army Camp, and Yang Zhaoji's troops stayed in the Shenji Camp.
Zhao Keming's troops had a traditional Beijing camp composition model. Among the 3,000 people, there were four units of spearmen and sword and shield soldiers, each with 1,200 people. In addition, there were 300 archers and 300 cavalry. The training was not bad, but He Huchen looked down on the others. , but the three hundred cavalry are going to be taken over.
Once the Xuanfu army plans to cross the river by boat, these cavalry can still play some role, at least to delay the sniper killing.
"Sir, it's better to play it safe. We don't have enough sword and shield soldiers. We rely solely on the spear squad. The Xuanfu Army's cavalry is fierce in cavalry shooting. If they break through, we will suffer heavy losses. It's better to deploy another 600 sword and shield soldiers as preparations." Liu Jichang suggested.
He Huchen understood what Liu Jichang meant. He would definitely not be able to defend Yuhe in the first battle, and would have to withdraw in the end. But once the enemy broke through, a force would be needed to cover the retreat.
Covering the retreat will inevitably lead to considerable losses. The spear team is not suitable, and the sword and shield soldiers are the most suitable. However, there are no sword and shield soldiers in his unit, and Zhao Keming's sword and shield soldiers are the best human shields.
He Huchen hesitated for a moment, but thought that the spear team under his command was not easy to train and would have to play a big role in the future. Zhao Keming's sword and shield troops were indeed more suitable for covering the retreat, so he nodded in agreement.
However, he still told Liu Jichang: "Jichang, please make it clear to Zhao Keming that as long as you defend Gonghua City, you will be successful. Our troops do not need to take care of the battle situation outside. He only needs to defend the city and our troops will return on their own."
Liu Jichang was slightly surprised. He didn't expect that his general was so confident, but after thinking about it, he immediately understood that if Zhao Keming's department really wanted to come out to support him, it would be self-defeating. Not only would it drag down his own side, but it would also take advantage of the situation. If Gong Huacheng is lost, it will be a disaster.
"You will finally understand."
He Huchen said no more, and went straight to the saddle and mount his horse, commanding the troops who had already rested for half an hour and then regrouped to march towards the stone bridge.
It was only two miles away. As soon as He Huchen arrived, Zhang Dingyuan finally breathed a sigh of relief and rushed over to report the battle situation.
Seeing corpses and weapons strewn across the bridge, and the strong smell of blood lingering on the river bank, He Huchen also understood the horror of this battle.
But this tragedy was against Xuanfu Town, and our side suffered almost no losses. Except for the sporadic damage caused by the archers' projectiles on the north bank of the river, the rest was almost negligible.
After walking along the river bank, He Huchen already had a rough understanding of the situation on the south bank of the Yu River.
It has to be said that the stone bridge is the most suitable area for the army to pass quickly. Although the Yu River is not wide, if you can find civilian boats, you can indeed quickly build a pontoon bridge on the river. But at least in He Huchen's opinion, the area around the stone bridge is It is difficult to find a suitable place to build a floating bridge within three hundred steps.
Because the river bank he saw was all silt and floating sand. Even if the Xuanfu army could find enough boats to build a pontoon, or use civilian boats to transfer them, the soldiers would only step into thigh-deep waters when they got off the boats. In the floating mud, unable to move.
If you want to walk from the sludge to the dry river bank, you can't do it in a few or five times, and during this period, you are almost a living target.
If you want to solve this problem, you have to prepare a large number of wooden boards, and use them to lay them on the silt and floating sand when they touch the shore, so as to avoid this difficulty.
But this process is not easy, at least it is not easy to complete such a process tonight. For He Huchen, what he wants is time, and this is enough.
At least between the two or three miles centered on Shiqiao, He Huchen could make it impossible for the Xuanfu army to get ashore easily, or in other words, they would have to pay a heavy price to get ashore.
"Ding Yuan, how long do you expect the Xuanfu Army's second wave of offensive to take and how it will be carried out?" After gathering several generals together, He Huchen did not ask anyone else, but directly asked Zhang Dingyuan, who had won the first battle, Just because he won the first battle, he deserved this special treatment.
"Sir, in the battle at Shiqiao, the Xuanfu army did not expect that our fire cannons would be so powerful. They were still calculating the power of the three-eyed fire cannons and clip-on guns in the Shenji Camp, so they prepared Not enough, that kind of cowhide shield can hardly withstand the blow of our fire cannon within thirty steps, and the narrow bridge deck also limits their attack speed, so only humble personnel can achieve this victory."
Zhang Dingyuan looked at the bosses around him staring at him, and couldn't help but clench his fists and cheer himself up to avoid stage fright.
This is a rare opportunity, and if you win the key, there is nothing to be afraid of.
"But I'm afraid the Xuanfu army will not underestimate the enemy next time, and they will not use shield soldiers to fight forward..."
"Oh?" He Huchen looked around, his attitude became calmer and gentler, he put his hands on his hips and said with encouraging eyes: "Then how do you think they will attack? You must know that time is not good for them, and what we have to fight for is time. The Jizhen army is already on the way, and I have received a message from General You. They are still sixty miles away from us at most, and they will be there tomorrow afternoon at the latest, so I left Jichang to arrange for Zhao Keming's department to take charge. To respond, everyone just needs to fight the battle in front of them well."
