Due to the terrain, the official road from Quanzhou to Tingzhou first went south to Zhangzhou, and then to the northwest.
In order to facilitate smooth traffic, two bridges were built across the Jinjiang River outside Quanzhou City. One is the Shunji Bridge outside Deji Gate, and the other is the Stalagmite Bridge outside Linzhang Gate.
If the thieves besieging Quanzhou City find that the situation is unfavorable, their first choice is to evacuate southward through the Stalagmite Bridge.
The thieves would naturally send people to guard this kind of traffic artery. In addition, although they suspended the siege, they still released more than 3,000 people to guard the small village outside Linzhang Gate.
In order to prevent the thieves from escaping, the Stalagmite Bridge must be controlled or destroyed, but Linzhang Gate was blocked, so they had to leave the city through Tongjin Gate.
Tongjin Gate is between Deji Gate and Linzhang Gate and is the southwest gate of Quanzhou.
The moat outside the gate is less than two miles away from the Jinjiang River. The terrain is too narrow, so there are no thieves.
Yuan Miao led five hundred monk soldiers out of the city and quickly headed upstream along the Jinjiang River.
At this time, the Qiaotou rebels had already learned the news of the arrival of reinforcements, and then heard the earth-shattering thunder, and they all became nervous.
Therefore, Yuan Miao's troops were discovered from a long distance away, and they were aware of their intentions, so they hurriedly asked for help from their accomplices outside Linzhang Gate, and sent people to report to the camp.
The rebels also used the same military structure as the official army. The person who commanded the more than 3,000 people outside Linzhang Gate was a "controller" named Guo Qing.
After receiving the request for help, he did not dare to neglect at all, and hurriedly led all his men to the bridge one mile away.
Although the thieves were organized into a team, they could barely form a formation, but without much formal training, there was no formation at all when moving, and they were completely in a chaotic swarm.
Guo Qing was also helpless about the current situation of his subordinates. After all, most of these people were just farmers a month or two ago, and it was already very good to obey orders.
He is a son of a powerful man, has read books and practiced martial arts, and has read many military books and strategies, but this does not mean that he has the ability to turn a group of farmers into an elite regular army in a short period of time.
They rushed to the bridge in a hurry and saw that the monk soldiers were only about 300 steps away.
Guo Qing yelled hurriedly, "Shoot arrows, shoot arrows, the archers quickly shoot arrows at the enemy... The shields go to the front and stand in a row, the spearmen stand behind the shields,..."
Compared with most grass bandits and thieves, the weapons of the thieves are relatively complete, including wooden shields, axes, long and short spears, earthen bows, etc., and they still have a certain degree of combat effectiveness.
More than a thousand archers panicked and started shooting. Regardless of whether they could hit anyone, the main thing was to strike first...
The other thieves began to reluctantly form an array under the urging and orders of the "officers".
Yuan Miao and others who were running towards saw the arrows floating towards them, but they were not afraid. While preparing themselves for the arrows, they charged even faster.
Monk soldiers did not need to work. In addition to chanting sutras and chanting Buddha's name every day, they also exercised their bodies and practiced martial arts. Their personal qualities were actually better than many soldiers of this era, and they were also very proficient in formation battles and combined attacks.
The weapons are mainly long iron rods, but also some swords, shields, bows and arrows. They wear light armor, but they don't wear helmets, and their heads are clearly bare.
The arrows fired by the thieves were weak, scattered and messy. The monk soldiers were all quick-sighted and quick-handed. When they encountered a threat, they would either block it with their round shields or use their weapons to drive them away.
If the more than a thousand archers of the rebels could fire in volley, it would definitely have a certain effect, but they couldn't. They could only fire continuously but unevenly.
Against the drizzle of arrows, Yuan Miao took the lead, leading the monk soldiers who still maintained their formation and quickly rushed to the front of the bandit formation.
Most people in this era are in awe of gods and Buddhas, especially farmers who are illiterate. When they see these bald heads rushing in front of them, they become confused and timid before fighting.
"Amitabha!"
Yuan Miaogao announced the name of Buddha, and nimbly stepped in between the two spears. The polished wrought copper stick in his hand was extremely ferocious, and it hit a long shield hard.
The crude wooden shield broke immediately, and the shield-wielding thieves screamed and stumbled backwards, rolling into a ball with the completely useless spearman behind them.
A gap was opened in the already loose formation. Yuan Miao stepped forward and hit the shield soldier next to him on the back of the head with his stick.
Not to mention that the thieves didn't have armor, even if they were wearing iron pockets, they still couldn't withstand the blow of the heavy stick weighing more than 20 kilograms.
The spurting brains made several nearby bandits even more frightened. They dropped their weapons and ran away crying.
The chaos and fear created spread out in all directions like water waves. The already loose array was like a rotten wooden boat floating on the water, and could fall apart at any time.
Following closely behind Yuan Miao's Dharma Book and Lotus Flower, one held a sword and the other swung a hammer, leaping in through the gap and fighting hard, not giving the thieves any chance to breathe.
Soon, more and more monk soldiers shouted Buddha's name and rushed into the bandit formation, killing all directions. However, the weapons in the hands of many bandit soldiers did not dare to attack these great monks, and they just resisted.
Perhaps the Chinese people can endure any suffering in this life, but they are very afraid of punishment and retribution after death...
Under the protection of the Buddha's light, the five hundred monk soldiers became more and more courageous as they fought, while the more than three thousand bandits could only resist and support themselves.
"Hold them off! Anyone who dares to retreat will be killed without mercy!"
"Brothers, there are six or seven times more of us than thieves and bald men. Don't be afraid of them. Kill them!"
"Buddhism is compassionate. These bald donkeys are definitely not real monks. The Buddha would not blame them if he killed them!"
"We can't lose this bridge, otherwise our way home will be cut off. Keep it, we must keep it!"
"Hold on, the camp will have support soon!"
Guo Qing and other 'officers' behind the bandit array shouted wildly and mercilessly killed many bandit soldiers who tried to escape.
These practices gave rise to the fighting spirit of the thieves, and with their blood boiling, the counterattack gradually became more intense.
The monk soldiers seemed to have suddenly stepped into a quagmire, and their steps became difficult. Often as soon as they killed one bandit, two or three more would pounce on them.
Realizing that the battle was beginning to stalemate, Yuan Miao couldn't help but become anxious, and struck even harder, smashing the head of a young thief with a blow.
"Sanlang!" A thief soldier not far away saw this scene and immediately went crazy. "You are a thief who has taken advantage of me, please give my brother his life!"
The thief's eyes turned red after turning into madness. He wielded a long knife and rushed towards Yuan Miao, using all his strength to chop at the bald head.
Yuan Miao caught a glimpse of Senhan's sword coming from the air, and quickly blocked it with his stick, and raised his foot to kick the crazy thieves away.
Before he could catch his breath, four sharp spears pierced him.
Yuan Miao turned around and took advantage of the intersection of the four spears to reach out and hold them firmly under his left armpit. At the same time, he held the copper rod in one hand and swept across, hitting four of them. The thieves were either dead or wounded.
But at this moment, another spear came from the side, as cunning as a poisonous snake, and stabbed Yuan Miao on the left waist.
Yuan Miao had no time to dodge, so she could only try to bend and swing back.
The tip of the spear missed, but the cold spear blade slashed across Yuan Miao's abdomen, cutting a bloody gash three to four feet long.
"Uncle Master!"
Seeing that Yuan Miao was in danger, Faben flew over and hacked the thieves spearman to death.
Yuan Miao was in unbearable pain. She covered the wound where her intestines were flowing out and fell to the ground.
"Uncle Master, hold on, I'll take you down right now..." Fa Ben dropped the knife and supported Yuan Miao.
Yuan Miao was sweating profusely, but gritted his teeth and shouted, "I can't die, leave me alone, go kill the thieves quickly, you must kill them back and grab them off the bridge, otherwise the thieves will continue to poison the place after they escape to the other side!" "
Faben had no choice but to pick up the knife and pounce on the nearest bandit.
At this time, although the rebels were forced to retreat step by step, the casualties of the monk soldiers were increasing, and thousands of people were coming to the rebel camp.
Seeing that the situation was getting more critical, Zhao Shijian, who was at the head of Linzhang Gate, decisively led two companies of Dongwei out of the city to provide support.
Their new force broke in from the flank of the rebels and threw more than a dozen grenades into the middle of the rebel formation, which immediately caused huge chaos.
The thieves were quickly crushed. No matter how much the 'officers' yelled, no matter how they killed and intimidated them, it had no effect.
The troops were completely demoralized, like a group of ducks being chased, retreating in panic. When the rebels who came out from the main camp to support saw this scene, they knew they had no way to save themselves, so they simply retreated, no longer caring about whether there were bridges or not. Yes.
The total length of the Stalagmite Bridge is more than eighty feet. A four-foot-long wooden beam bridge is specially installed at the end of the bridge near Quanzhou City, which can be hoisted when necessary to defend against enemy invaders or passing ships.
The squad quickly tied more than 40 grenades into several bundles, placed them on wooden beams and structural joints, blew up the wooden beam bridge, and pushed it into the river.
The violent explosions reached the ears of the thieves, and they thought that the monk soldiers had used some powerful magic. They did not even dare to stay in the small village, but fled directly to the main camp.
Soon after, the original Lin family mansion where the rebel army was located fell into a quarrel.
"I don't believe it. With more than 40,000 of us, can't we win back even one bridge?"
"What's the use of taking it back? The suspension bridge is gone..."
"Can't we repair it if it's gone!?"
"It's a waste of time to repair it. The officers and soldiers destroyed the bridge to cut off our retreat. It must have been a large number of reinforcements that gave them the confidence. We'd better evacuate quickly to avoid being surrounded."
"How to evacuate? Where to evacuate? There may be officers and soldiers coming from the north. If you go west past Anxi, you will have to go into the ravine..."
"That's better than waiting to die here!"
"Snapped!"
Zhang Yanran slammed a porcelain pot on the ground, "Stop arguing!"
When everyone looked at him blankly, he said solemnly, "Although I don't know why the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse, in my opinion, we should evacuate to Zhangzhou first, and then decide based on the situation. The worst is That is to withdraw to Tingzhou, then we can defend according to the danger, prepare our troops and wait for the opportunity, otherwise, we can continue to withdraw westward."
Someone asked in confusion, "But the bridge is gone, how can we evacuate south?"
Zhang Yanran replied nonchalantly, "If there is no bridge, we will use ferries. Fortunately, I had people collect more than fifty ferries before."
"Ah? There are so many of us, how long will it take for this small boat to cross the river?"
"There are not many people. We only need to take away 10,000 old people. The rest are just mud-legged people brought along the way. Should we take them back to raise them? Okay, without further ado, send someone to Chaotianmen as soon as possible. Wang Xiu delivers the letter, but as for the Renfeng Sect, just ignore him, maybe he can buy us some more time."
Zhang Yanran made a decision, and the core of the thieves immediately took action.
Half an hour later, less than 10,000 of them walked eight or nine miles upstream of the Jinjiang River, arrived at the ferry at the foot of Jiuri Mountain, and began to cross the river.
When the other thieves discovered that they had been abandoned, they all collapsed.
Those who could swim immediately jumped into the Jinjiang River and fled to the other side. Some of them found a random direction and ran away, and some simply asked for surrender directly from the officers and soldiers in the city.
