On the night when Liu Hongsheng's troops boarded the head of Jinxian City, Song Xiaoqiao's seaplane brigade entered the Baita River from Zhongzhou.
They quickly used the materials they brought to build three pontoon bridges at Weizhou Crossing. The temporary second brigade composed of the first and second battalions, which had already quietly entered the starting position, began to cross the river in an orderly manner.
Tan Zhongxiao stood on the hill on the right bank and looked at the endless stream of teams below, stroking the beard on his chin and looking in the direction of Meiling, thinking to himself that Jiao Conghu must arrive at the meeting point on time.
If only he could face Yang Xing's 5,000 tribesmen, Tan Zhongxiao had never fought such a tough battle with a few against many, and he felt a little guilty in his heart.
Behind them were Zhu Qizhen, a Qianhu, and Hu Qing, a Qianhu who came for reinforcements, and then Zhao Chongbi and his Chinese army. Seeing that Song Xiaoqiao's fleet left some people behind while the rest continued to sail south, Zhao Chongbi, who was wearing carved leather armor, exhaled: "It's a miracle that three pontoon bridges were built in half an hour! Shui Ying deserves a lot of credit!"
"They have been practicing for half a month, and their results are not bad. Song Xiaoqiao was born in Huxi, but he is loyal, brave and intelligent. You can pay more attention to him. This person will definitely be a good general in the future!" Li Dan added.
"You are not bad. You are very capable of teaching such a talented person. I heard that this idea was yours?" Zhao Chongbi pointed at the bridge with his riding crop and asked with a smile.
Generally speaking, most pontoons use civilian boats as the bottom and then lay wooden boards on top.
Civilian ships have different regulations, and the planks are also unevenly thin and thick. The effect of this is that people, horses, and vehicles must be careful when walking on them, which is almost less dangerous than walking in deep mountains and canyons.
Li Dan frowned when he saw this "floating bridge" for the first time. Others thought it didn't matter. Isn't that what a floating bridge is like?
But Li Dan firmly believed that this would affect the speed of crossing the bridge too much, and this kind of pontoon bridge would not help the group training with a large number of horses and carriages at all, it would simply be a disservice!
He used the pontoon left outside the south gate for an experiment. As a result, a Si Ma heavy truck crossed the river without a load. It was stuck by ships of different heights about a third of the way.
In the second test, the carriage was replaced with an ordinary carriage loaded with sandbags. As a result, it took twelve people to push and carry the carriage successfully across the bridge for half an hour. After the class passed, it took half an hour of huffing and puffing to regain strength.
"We have hundreds of carriages in the army. How long will it take if all of you can pass by?" Li Dan looked at everyone in the staff gasping for air, smacking their lips and lowering their heads, and immediately decided to build a new pontoon bridge!
Li Dan's plan was to use a trapezoidal pontoon, with two types: one foot four feet long and eight feet wide, or two feet two feet long and one foot one foot wide. The former carried infantry and horses, and the latter carried cargo vehicles.
The pontoons are connected in pairs with hinges and have prefabricated decks on the surface.
When used, it is carried in a boat, slid into the water, folded and opened, and then each pair is hooked together with a few-shaped wooden wedges, so that a flat pontoon bridge can be set up in a very short time.
Moreover, the bridge can be long or short. When disassembling, use a tool to knock out each pair of wooden wedges to separate them. It can be easily lifted to the carrying boat using a combination of gantry and pulley hoist, making it easy to transfer the location or build the bridge again.
In the past, only the bridge brigade of Shuiying had practiced using this thing to build a bridge on the East River. This was the first time that troops set foot on it. The officers and soldiers were very curious, whispering to each other excitedly, and laughing from time to time.
"It seems that the brothers like it very much!" Li Dan nodded with satisfaction. After watching a Sima heavy truck successfully cross the bridge, he breathed a sigh of relief and bowed his hand to Zhao Chongbi:
"Then I'll leave my humble post and go south. I'll leave it to the governor here! Please discuss anything with Xianfu (Zhao Jingzi)."
"Go back quickly, don't worry here, but you are in a tiger's den, making it difficult for everyone!" Zhao Chongbi returned the courtesy and said: "The emperor is waiting for your news, don't disappoint him!"
Li Dan said goodbye to Zhao Chongbi, took one last look at the endless stream of troops crossing the river, turned his horse's head and headed south. Behind him were the accompanying staff officers and guards.
Everyone who went south knew that this was a big gamble, but as Li Dan said, they volunteered to participate in this operation, and they also knew that the compensation for casualties would be twice as high as usual!
Yujiang is a small town with a small circumference.
Up to Wuli, according to the weekly system, even the city cannot be counted, but can only be counted as a town. To build a pontoon bridge, the most suitable place was Xiajiadu. After the three pontoon bridges were built, Zhou Tu took the cavalry company and the third company to do a warm-up rehearsal.
As the vanguard of the southern route, they crossed the river and marched straight in. They occupied Wuligang and cut off the retreat route of the Yujiang defenders. Only half of the Yujiang garrison was actually in the city, and the other half were guarding grain in the water transport warehouse outside the south city.
The city found that the river three miles away was suddenly full of boats, and felt that something was wrong. While they were discussing whether they should go and inquire, Zhou Tu and the others whizzed past, followed by billowing smoke and dust, and the second and fourth companies rushed towards the north gate with all their strength.
It was only three miles away and we were there in an instant! The leaders of the Jiangshan Army shouted at the top of their lungs: "Close the city gate!"
But the soldiers were too frightened to move forward. Gao Can took the lead and knocked away a leader who was still drawing his sword. He shouted: "Gao Junran (Gao Can's character) is here, and those who surrender will not be killed!" He rushed all the way to the south. The door went through again.
When the south gate heard the shouting from the north gate, they didn't know what was going on. When they saw a group of people entering the city and then leaving the south gate like a storm, they looked at each other even more.
The people who followed Gao Can into the city surrounded the county government office at the foot of Beicheng. Only when the shouts of killing came from the south gate did they know something was wrong.
When they were about to close the city gate in a hurry, they looked back and saw a large number of green-shirted troops pouring in. They were so frightened that they quickly opened the city gate. Those who had no time to escape had to throw away their knives and spears and kneel on the ground with their hands raised.
The people who came in were Zheng Xinchi and his subordinates from the Fourth Battalion. He immediately took over the county government and sent two hundred people to the south of the city to take over the water transport warehouse that had been taken over by Gao Can and inventory the storage.
When Li Dan heard that Yu Jiang had been captured, he happily handed over to Yang Shijie and joked: "If everything goes well, I won't send you, the acting magistrate, to take office. Please do everything!"
"I didn't expect it to be so fast. It's only been an hour!" Yang Shijie praised in admiration and returned the gift. Then he didn't have any more words and just said:
"Shijie will definitely live up to your lordship's trust. It's been a hard journey south, so please take care of yourself!" After saying that, he took a few followers and a selected clerk and entered the city under the escort of three hundred township warriors.
Li Dan turned to Yang Yi again: "Brother Yi, let's say goodbye. Song Xiaoqiao can only send you along the Yao River as far as Xin'an Bridge. The rest will depend on you. The mountains are high and the roads are far away, and the enemies of Jinxi have no news for the time being. , you have to be quick!
Just like the capture of Yujiang this time, capture it quickly while they are not thinking. You are alone and have no backup. As long as there is no progress in the first half hour, you will immediately withdraw from the battle without further entanglement. Save your strength, understand?
"I understand." Yang Yi smiled bitterly: "I didn't expect that one day when I'm fighting with others, you won't be around."
Li Dan patted him under the arm and said, "You'll get used to it. A man with a universal heart will eventually get there!" Then he cupped his hands to Song Xiaoniu, Shi Dajun and others behind him and said, "Protect Yang Yingzheng, and don't allow stones to drink." Too much wine!"
"Then I have become their maid?" Song Xiaoniu looked at the two of them and said with a grin.
"Is it possible that you still want to be a lady?" Shi Dajun's words caused a burst of laughter. After everyone saluted, they followed Yang Yi onto their horses, joking with each other and chasing Song Xiaoqiao's fleet.
Yang Yi brought his own battalion, a strengthened reconnaissance platoon, two archer platoons, some auxiliary troops, and 300 civilians transferred over, for a total of more than 1,000 people. In terms of military strength, it is comparable to the Jinxi defenders. How to capture the city depends on the cooperation and tactics of these three people.
Looking at their backs, Li Dan chuckled and said to the others: "It's time for us to leave. Order each company to assemble at Yingtan and report to the task force battalion headquarters upon arrival!" After saying that, he turned his horse's head.
Lu Rui and Zhao Baogen both changed into the uniforms of the Qingshirt team and accompanied them as bodyguards.
If there were two Winged Dragon Guards in this team, it would be too conspicuous, so they were very conscious of it. Li Dan didn't treat them badly by giving them the epaulettes of lieutenant and second lieutenant respectively.
Lu Rui was good at riding. He and Mao Zaidi followed closely behind Li Dan and said half-jokingly: "Sir, are you so relieved? These teams are from the south city and the north city. You are not afraid that they will go the wrong way and lose their time." Something went wrong?"
Lin Baotong laughed loudly behind him. He was the person in charge of internal security at the staff department and one of the few people who knew Lu Rui's identity.
:
"Captain Lu, don't worry. They all have maps in their hands. If they can't even read a map, then this company commander should go to the teaching team to learn!" Kanshu La
"What is a teaching team?" Zhao Baogen heard this for the first time.
"Military academy." Lin Baotong told him: "Sir Alex said that the team was developing too fast and there were not enough people to lead the team, so he selected some young talents to teach the team.
Including how to lead troops, how to organize an attack, how to form defensive formations, how to set up ambushes, how to resist attacks, etc. After studying for three months, I graduated, and after passing the exam, I returned to the team to lead the team. "
"Then, who will teach them?"
"Master Ma Jiu, an old man who retired from the army due to a leg injury. I heard that he turned out to be the instructor of the Japanese army in eastern Zhejiang, and he was also a man with a title!"
"Oh!" Zhao Baogen remembered: "It's him. I've met him before. It's a close relationship. I didn't expect him to be really capable!"
"No, this time when Liaohuazi attacked Yugan, it was Master Ma who led 500 people in Leijiawan and fought with his pioneer Mao Taigong, killing him so much that he hid in the camp and did not dare to come out...!" Lu Jiu interjected. Dancing with excitement.
Ma Jiu is the second most important person in the world to him after his parents. This has nothing to do with steamed buns and Hu cakes. The key is that this noble man gave him the opportunity to be with Li Sanlang. This deep love was rekindled, so Lu Jiu listened to it. Someone gets excited when they talk about Master Ma Jiu.
"Okay, okay, brother Lu, you can give us a good talk when we camp tonight!"
Lu Jiu shook his big head, stretched out his palm and raised it.
"What do you mean?" Zhao Baogen asked Lin Baotong, who was holding back a smile.
"Oh, this means five buns talk for an hour."
"Ahem, this is easy, then it's settled, Brother Lu!"
Li Dan, who was in front, knew that he wanted to understand clearly and write every word to the emperor, so he didn't intend to stop him.
He smiled and said in front of him: "Ah Jiu, why don't you give Captain Zhao ten steamed buns for an hour, and you can talk more about it, starting from...the day you left the Polygonum Flower Camp, how about that?"
"Hey! Sir, look at you, you have become such a high-ranking official, so how can I, the big-headed soldier, be happy! Five, just five, we are honest people, and we won't change our words at the same price!" Lu Jiu said quickly.
Mao Zaidi couldn't help but laugh out loud. When he took the lead, the people in the team who knew about it suddenly burst into laughter.
Zhao Baogen didn't know why, Colonel Lu suddenly felt happy when he touched his beard. He guessed that there might be some little secret in it that Lu Jiu could not see.
At the county government office in Dongxiang, Yan Yan was reporting to Yang Xing on the team's preparations. After much hesitation, Yang Xing still felt the need to take Anren back!
But before that, he thought he had to defeat Meigang's Xiang Yong who was good at stirring things up. This task fell to Yan Yan.
The relationship between Yan Yan, one of the four heavenly kings, and Yang Xing is much closer than that of "Yizhixiang" Lian Daxiang. He is Yang Xing's eldest brother-in-law and the biological uncle of his child!
Yan Yan was also a martial arts examiner. At that time, he ranked first in the martial arts examination in Yanping Prefecture. He was a man of literary and military skills and a dignified appearance, so he was known as the "Little Wen Hou" in the army.
With his official status and handsome appearance, it is of course impossible for this uncle to take the short, black briquette-like Lian Daxiang in his eyes, and at the same time, he does not pay attention to the generals except Yang Xing. .
How could the proud and brave "Little Wenhou" stand with these people?
But now that Lian Daxiang was sent to Jinxian to drag down the army, Yan Yan suddenly felt that he had more opportunities and possibilities.
So he first proposed that in order to defeat Anren, he must first attack Meigang and cut off one arm (the other arm was Huangxi). Anren adopted a timid strategy and actively fought for the opportunity to show his face.
Yang Xing decided to allocate half of his troops to him, allowing him to quickly defeat Meigang's resistance and collect more money and food. Yan Yan came today to report to him that everything was ready and the team could set off. And asked if Yang Xing went to the school field for military parade and so on.
Yang Xing waved his hand: "You go quickly, don't delay even a day. I will hand over all the old soldiers to you this time, and you must win with one blow. Then collect the ships in Meigang, and when I come east to attract the attention of the defenders, you can Can go directly from Meigang
Cross the river and capture the golden port.
This will not only cut off Yu Gan's assistance to Anren, but also help me attack from both sides so that he can't look at each other. Naturally, I hope that this first achievement can finally fall on your head accurately! "
He stopped Yan Yan, who was about to prostrate himself after the great joy, and asked him, "When are you going to leave for Meigang?"
"My little brother plans to leave early tomorrow morning." Yan Yan said softly.
Unexpectedly, Yang Xing shook his head: "Who knows if there are any other spies in this city who have not been caught? It would be bad if the news leaks out."
Yan Yan was stunned and asked: "Marshal's opinion?"
"Now that everything is ready, leave immediately without hesitation. Falling from the sky before the opponent understands the situation is the effect I want to achieve. So don't do any fancy military parades or flag sacrifices. Set off immediately!"
"Um..." Yan Yan was a little embarrassed: "Although we knew we were going to send troops, no one expected to leave today. It's a bit too sudden."
"Don't be afraid, just tell them that there are more wealthy people in Meigang than these people, and there are countless gold, silver, jewelry, and women. I see that even if you don't bother talking, those people will push you to hurry up. Out of camp." Yang Xing sneered.
Yan Yan suddenly understood and immediately resigned and ran back to the camp. Yang Xing smiled and put down a chess piece to the east of the chess piece, tilted his head to look at it, and said through gritted teeth: "If you dare to take my Anren, you will never come back!"
” Less than an hour later, someone came to report that General Yan had led his troops out of the north gate. "I know." Yang Xing sat quietly, then put down another chess piece and murmured:
"Being first doesn't necessarily mean you win. Let's see how I can turn defeat into victory while you are still busy being proud!"
Yesterday, Commander-in-Chief Father sent someone to send a message, saying that the time was almost here, and that he had already agreed that some generals would surrender in the city. When the general attack was launched, they would rebel in the city to respond to the army, and asked him if he could spare one or two soldiers. Thousands of people support.
What Yang He meant was to immediately attack the surrounding counties after pulling out Fuzhou. The three route armies attacked Ji'an, Fengcheng and Nancheng respectively, taking advantage of the situation to maximize the results of the battle. It is best to hold Fuzhou, Jianchang and Linjiang in your hands and threaten Nanchang before claiming the throne.
But this conflicts with Yang Xing's thinking. In his opinion, once Fuzhou was conquered and King Fu was captured or killed, Jiangshan's army would be the target of public criticism. Anren and Yugan are not only barriers to Nanchang Prefecture, but also the only places for reinforcements from South Zhili to go south.
If both cities are under the control of the Jiangshan Army, the officers and soldiers will have a headache; if one city is controlled by the Jiangshan Army, it will take a lot of effort for the officers and soldiers; but if neither city is in the hands of the Jiangshan Army, Dongxiang will become the front line, and Fuzhou will There is no point in being king!
There has been no reply from Liaohuazi on Yugan's side, and Lao Dao's assassination failed. Now Anren has fallen again, and the emperor has appointed a governor and a new chief envoy. It is obvious that the imperial court has been pressing forward step by step. At this time, he still only wants to be famous. Isn’t the king unwise?
So Yang Xing rejected his father's request and was determined to regain Anren as soon as possible no matter what!
