The pontoon bridges were all temporarily built, and the quality was worrying. Yang Su had rich experience and knew that these pontoon bridges would be almost broken if 10,000 people walked on them.
Setting up a pontoon bridge is very time-consuming, especially building a pontoon bridge on the Yellow River is very dangerous.
Because the current of the Yellow River is very fast, if a person falls, no one will save him. It’s all up to you. It doesn’t matter if you float. If you can’t swim, just wait for death.
Fortunately, in addition to the temporary pontoon bridge, there has always been a large pontoon bridge at the ferry here. I can't say it is permanent, but at least it can last for a long time.
Moreover, there are hundreds of small ferries at the ferry port, which have long been docked, waiting to transport troops to Pujin Pass on the other side.
The army arrived one after another and gathered in a dense crowd on the shore, stretching for more than ten miles.
We can't cross the river yet, and we need to understand the situation on the other side.
The postmen conveying military information came from the other side one after another, bringing back the latest news.
In the afternoon, Yang Ming received a military report. Hedong County suffered three sieges last night. Pei Wen'an's leading troops had already entered the county. Li Jing led his troops to retreat to Pujing Pass in the early morning and asked Yang Ming for urgent help.
"There is absolutely enough time. The pharmacist is still capable and leaves us plenty of time." Yang Su unfolded a map and pointed at Pujin Pass on it: "If Hedong County is lost, this place will be like an isolated city and cannot resist. How long, we have to cross the river now."
Yang Ming frowned and said: "It takes a lot of time for the army to cross the river. Once we cross the river, we will face the rebels directly. Once we fight, it will be detrimental to our army."
The other side is only thirty miles away from Pujing Pass, and Hedong County has been lost, so enemy spies must have detected the situation on Yang Ming's side.
Pei Wen'an is not a fool. He will definitely allocate some troops to bypass Pujin Pass and prevent the army from crossing the river, so that he can easily eat Li Jing.
Yang Su nodded and said: "So His Highness needs to immediately give an order to Li Jing to abandon the pass. He should have more than 10,000 people in his hands now. He must do his best to stop the rebels from approaching the ferry and buy us time to cross the river."
Isn’t this just asking Li Jing to die? Yang Ming was unwilling.
But then I thought about it, war is like this, the safety of one person should not affect the overall situation, especially if the generals have disagreements, it is a big taboo.
Li Jing is Yang Su's disciple, and Yang Su made such an arrangement with the overall situation in mind.
So Yang Ming was just in a flash of lightning, and he nodded decisively and said:
"Immediately order the entire army to cross the river."
A flash of excitement flashed in Yang Su's eyes, and he quickly ordered the generals in his headquarters to arrange the crossing of the river immediately.
For a time, the sergeants came out one after another on all the pontoon bridges and slowly crossed the river.
Yes, when walking on a pontoon bridge, you can't go too fast. If you go too fast, your steps will be heavy, which will put great pressure on the pontoon bridge.
All the boats also began to transport troops to the other side. Small boats could carry twenty people and large boats fifty people. Crossing the river was also very slow.
The Yellow River is the fastest flowing river in China. The ferry crosses sideways and can capsize if you are not careful, which tests the boatman's maneuvering skills.
The cavalry baggage will be put last, because the temporary pontoon bridge will not last long, and it will be counted as much as it can pass.
As long as Pujin Pass can be preserved, Feng Yi County will continue to build pontoon bridges to ensure supplies from the rear.
In two hours, there were only more than 20,000 people on the other side. Fortunately, Yang Su deployed properly. The vanguard troops were all Shi Wansui's own men. Once they crossed the river, they would march in the direction of Pujin Pass to relieve Li Jing's pressure.
Yang Ming stood on a high ground on the bank, wearing heavy armor, looking in the direction of the Yellow River.
One pontoon bridge could not bear the pressure and had broken at the waist. Hundreds of sergeants walking on the pontoon bridge all fell into the water.
The battlefield is so cruel. Many times, the number of troops is reduced, not during the battle.
Breaking a pontoon bridge will not affect the speed of crossing the river, because there is a supervising team, and the soldiers only need to understand one thing, and that is to be obedient.
Those who disobey will be killed on the spot.
From the other side, there were also countless family records coming in a hurry. Most of these people had family records belonging to Hedong County officials. There might be Hongfu girls in them and they had to be protected, so ships had to be temporarily dispatched to take them back to the other side.
Until nightfall, the army was still crossing the river, and seven pontoon bridges were broken. This was already a good result.
Countless civilians, under the supervision of the government, urgently repaired the pontoon bridge, resulting in countless deaths.
At this time, Yang Ming needed to cross the river. He was the generalissimo and could not leave last because he had to go there early to command the army.
After Shi Wansui crossed the river, he ran into a vanguard army under Pei Wen'an. Their number could not be estimated in a short time.
Although he had no time to set up a formation, Shi Wansui still decisively dispersed the army. With three regiments as one army, that is, 900 to 1,000 people, he directly fought against the rebels.
The situation was very chaotic.
Shi Wansui, on the other hand, led his own guards, a total of 3,000 people, and took advantage of the chaos to attack Pujin Pass along the road.
He knew that reinforcements from the rear were crossing the river in a steady stream, and he could not be held back by the rebel army behind him. He must support Li Jing as soon as possible, otherwise they would not be able to retreat even if Pujin Pass was lost.
Even though he only brought 3,000 people with him, these 3,000 people were all his cronies, and under the banner of Taiping Gong, many small groups of rebels did not dare to step forward when they saw Shi Wansui's banner. .
Out of the seventy-two generals of the Martial Temple, only four were selected during the Sui Dynasty: Yang Su, Han Qinhu, He Ruobi, and Shi Wansui.
Shi Wansui had been fighting all his life and had a high prestige among the Sui army. Many of Yang Liang's rebels were Shi Wansui's old subordinates, and many soldiers had followed Shi Wansui to fight against the Turks.
So when they saw Taiping Gong's flag, they felt guilty.
Shi Wansui's vanguard army of 20,000 people crossed the river first, followed by Yang Ming's central army of 30,000 people, some under the banner of King Qin and some under the banner of Yue Gong.
Guo Yan and Changsun Chengdian were separated from each other.
As soon as they crossed the river, there was a big battle. In the hinterland of the mountains, both sides couldn't get into position and could only fight blindly.
Yang Ming took his personal guards and Yang Su's headquarters, a total of 20,000 people, and went straight to Pujin Pass. The remaining people spread out to prevent the rebels from approaching the ferry.
The thirty-mile journey from the ferry to Pujing Pass was exhausting. I could only run and walk, and I also had to deal with small groups of rebels that suddenly appeared in the surrounding area.
Almost all the rebels were fighting in the direction of Yue Gong, and there was no pressure on Yang Ming's side.
.......
Pei Wen'an is an expert in military affairs. He has a good background and has read military books. Moreover, his hometown is in Hedong, so he is familiar with the surrounding environment.
A scout came to report that they had found Taiping Gong Shi Long Live, Yue Gong Yang Su, and the banner of King Qin behind Pujin Pass.
The first two are easy to understand. What the hell is King Qin?
Isn't he dead? Can a dead ghost lead troops?
"Let's explore further and find out who is in charge of the King of Qin's department."
Pei Wen'an's 80,000-strong army has been divided into 40,000 troops. The 40,000 troops were further divided into five groups, bypassing Pujin Pass and approaching the ferry in order to delay the opponent's reinforcements from crossing the river.
He personally led the remaining 30,000 main troops to engage in an all-out battle with Li Jing's army in several areas outside Pujin Pass.
The missing 10,000 troops, which is a bit embarrassing to say, were lost in the attack on Hedong County.
He also didn't expect that the guard in Hedong County was so powerful and could cause him so many casualties. After asking about it, he found out that he was Han Qinhu's nephew, which was no wonder.
Pei Wen'an knew in his heart that whether he could capture Pujin Pass was of great importance, so he had no reservations on his side. Except for the close guards who stayed with him, everyone else was brought to the front line.
The 40,000 reinforcements brought by Qiao Zhongkui from Dai County are about to arrive. On his side, he must first ensure that the front line does not collapse. Once the reinforcements arrive, they can take advantage of the situation in the mountainous areas of this area to annihilate all the incoming troops.
His plan was actually right. If it hadn't been for the unexpected difficulty of the Pujin Pass defenders, he could have surrounded Pujin Pass and sent a large army to approach the ferry to set up an ambush and eliminate the enemy troops who were rushing to cross the river.
Unfortunately, the fighting in Hedong County last night was extremely fierce. Not only did it suffer heavy losses, but it also delayed military aircraft, causing reinforcements from the other side to land.
Therefore, the top priority now is to concentrate superior forces and quickly capture Pujin Pass.
The armies of both sides have come into contact and can only fight head-on.
Although Pei Wen'an had already sent someone to pass it on, saying that it was Yang Xuangan, not Yang Su, who was carrying the banner of Yue Gong, in order to calm the morale of the army.
He couldn't admit that Yang Su was here. After all, they were rebelling and their goal was to kill Yang Su. If they were killed here, how could they go to Guanzhong?
Furthermore, Yang Su was highly respected in the army, and he was afraid that his soldiers would be timid.
As for the dead ghost King Qin, this reason was difficult to make up, so Pei Wen'an and the retainers put it together and simply said it was a general named Qin Yu. Anyway, it was so late at night that no one could see clearly if there was less.
There can't be a king's flag on the opposite side, because their side is also a king's flag, the king's flag of Han.
King against king, the slogan of killing Yang Suqing as king is no longer tenable.
Fortunately, soldiers are used for lake hunting. As long as the generals below know it well, ordinary sergeants can just use their lives.
Li Jing's side suffered heavy casualties. Most of his subordinates were killed or wounded. Coupled with the chaos on the battlefield, many of them were scattered and many escaped. At the moment, he only had 3,000 men in his hands. He was fighting and retreating to the rear. The Pujin Pass retreated.
He knew very well that out of three thousand people, only one thousand at most could successfully return to Guancheng.
This time, he received an order from Yang Ming. Only a thousand men were left to guard the pass. He took the rest out and relied on the mountains and rivers around Pujin Pass to fight guerrillas. Because the troops were at an absolute disadvantage, a head-on confrontation would be a disaster. Therefore, he could only disperse in small groups to disrupt the opponent in order to delay Pei Wen'an's main force from advancing westward.
Bodies were everywhere. Li Jing ordered all the torches to be thrown away and they retreated in the dark to avoid obvious targets.
Suddenly, arrows rained down from the sky. Fortunately, as long as the distance was far enough, the lethality of the bow and arrow was still very limited.
The most terrifying thing is the enemy's small group of light cavalry. The cavalry has a huge effect on the battlefield and can tear apart the defense line so well that the number of people around Li Jing was reduced rapidly. After a while, there were only 800 people left. Fortunately, Guancheng was in sight. As long as you run a few hundred meters more, you can return to Pujin Pass smoothly.
It was at this time that an infantry force emerged from the path in the distance. They were well-equipped. Although they were small in number, they were able to quickly form a formation, like a wedge inserted between Li Jing and the rebels.
One look at the flag, it turned out that Shi Wansui was the one.
Although Shi Wansui was old, he was still wearing armor all over his body, with a shield on his left and a sword on his right, riding a horse in the middle of the military formation and giving orders.
This man is a born warrior, he was born for the battlefield.
Three thousand people stood in the middle, directly blocking the nearly 10,000 people who were chasing Li Jing on the opposite side.
There is no way, everyone on Shi Wansui's side is wearing armor, they can withstand beatings, and they are elite soldiers who have experienced hundreds of battles. However, the rebels on the opposite side are unable to move due to the terrain. The ones who are really facing Shi Wansui are the vanguard forces. Those one or two thousand people.
The situation suddenly reversed, and Shi Wansui took advantage and killed the rebels, causing chaos.