Chapter 167 The decisive moment
The water of the Yellow River rushes down in a mighty way. The color of the rolling Yellow River water is almost all yellow.
Ye Chen watched the surge of water in the Yellow River crash onto the pontoon bridge.
At the beginning, the floating bridge actually considered the problem of rising water in the Yellow River, but now it seems that this issue has been considered very superficially.
For example, there is a sandbar in the middle that serves as a transit point. It looks like a small island, but it is not. Under the impact of the Yellow River water, it is easily washed away, and a sandbar is alluvially created nearby.
There are always sandbars of various sizes in the Yellow River. But these sandbars are not the same.
The biggest problem with the pontoon bridge is that it is not wide enough. During the dry season, the Yellow River seems to be no different from an ordinary river. There are only a few shallow streams of water on the wide river bed. Although these few streams of water have also become a major obstacle to the Northern Army's southward march. .
But only when we really see the Yellow River today do we know what it means for the water of the Yellow River to come up from the sky.
The original tidal flats on both sides of the bank were all submerged by the Yellow River water. From the Yellow River, which is several miles wide, it is almost impossible to see the other side. If the visibility is low in wind and rain, it is difficult to tell whether you are facing the Yellow River or the sea.
And the Yellow River is never docile.
Perhaps due to the concentrated rainfall in the north, the Yellow River also has the characteristic of rising very quickly. A few days ago, the pontoon bridge was still in normal use. Almost overnight, a carriage was washed away by the Yellow River water on the pontoon bridge.
Today, the people below officially told him that the Yellow River Floating Bridge can no longer be used.
And in the future, it will be difficult for even ships to cross the Yellow River.
Now the Yellow River is rising fiercely. The water conditions were very unstable, there were many undercurrents in the Yellow River, and Ye Chen didn't have any big boats in his hands. Crossing the Yellow River is a task that tests the boatman's skills.
However, Ye Chen did not have any old Yellow River sailors in his hands. These people had been taken away by the Southern Army and could not fall into the hands of the Northern Army.
Only after waiting for a period of time for the water conditions to stabilize can the transfer begin.
Ye Chen said: "Pass the order, all ministries are preparing. The decisive battle will be today and tomorrow."
Ye Chen knew the news about Shanxi in Guanzhong earlier than Fu Youde. After all, as soon as Zhao Yong surrendered, the connection between the West Route Army and the South Route Army was opened. The connection between the two parties is very close.
Ye Chen also knew that the current situation had pushed Fu Youde into a corner.
Whether he wanted to fight this battle or not, he was going to fight it.
Ye Chen suddenly felt a little bored with this battle at this moment.
He felt that the victory was too weak. Regardless, he still acted as a responsible person and reported to the court, requesting the Shandong direction to start a battle. Taking advantage of his illness and killing him, he plans to capture Nanjing within this year.
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Ye Chen's order was naturally passed on.
It's just that there is still some arrogance among the Northern Army, and many generals don't care at all. They suffered greatly in the face of Fu Youde's decisive counterattack.
The Northern Army crossed a small ditch.
I don’t even know the name of this ditch, it’s just like the drainage ditches in many villages. Not wide. There wasn’t much rain either.
Such small rivers are not uncommon along the Yellow River.
This is also caused by the structure of the Yellow River embankment.
In order to prevent the backflow of the Yellow River, almost all the rivers flowing into the Yellow River in the lower reaches of the Yellow River were cut off. Fortunately here, after all, the Yellow River is not a river hanging above the ground. A little further east, there will be some ditches parallel to the Yellow River.
After all, the Yellow River embankment is the highest place nearby, and rivers can easily form below the Yellow River embankment.
Directing this accumulated water to various branches of the Huaihe River is a very important water conservancy work.
Although it cannot be said that there are rivers like this everywhere in the Central Plains, there are indeed many.
When the Northern Army crossed the river, they didn't think much about it.
Some such rivers have bridges, and some do not. Even if there is a bridge on the river, the bridge is not big. Because the government is determined not to build the bridge here.
, these bridges were built by local people raising funds.
The so-called good deeds of building bridges and paving roads.
At most one carriage can pass on such a bridge. This is already huge. Many bridges are simply a few stones supporting a plank.
As a result, the Northern Army would naturally be restricted when passing through the bridge.
It’s not that the Northern Army didn’t build bridges.
There is no need for Ye Chen to tell him to build roads and bridges across mountains and rivers. This is the responsibility of the striker.
However, on this river, the Northern Army was inevitably a little lazy. In fact, it wouldn't take long to just queue up and pass through in columns. It would be enough to build one or two bridges to transfer supplies.
But they never expected it.
A group just crossed the river. Facing the strong offensive of the Southern Army.
This time, there were no bells and whistles. The southern army formed a line and came over in a mighty manner.
The Northern Army thought that it would be the same as before. If the two sides made slight contact, the other side would retreat. But they never expected that after the Confederate and Northern armies reached each other's firing range, they began to fire at each other.
After several rounds of volleys.
Both sides looked through the smoke of each other's shots.
It was discovered that the Confederate army continued to advance.
They were beaten to pieces. There were not many dead or injured soldiers, and many people were lying on the ground. Their blood and red clothes became the embellishment of the earth.
But still keep moving forward.
At this time, the commander of the frontline regiment issued an order that was hard to say was wrong. That is to launch a counterattack.
Because the two sides were close enough, each side inflicted considerable damage on the other. And because they were crossing the river, the cannon didn't bring anything with them. Of course, it looks like there are no cannons on the other side.
In this case, keep shooting and wait for others to attack with bayonets, or take the initiative to counterattack, knock down the enemy and wait for the second attack. Take advantage of this time to transport more troops across the river from the rear.
Or build a bridge over this small river to facilitate attack and retreat.
The river is only a few feet wide. Suddenly it became a geographical advantage that both parties could not ignore.
But the idea of regiment control failed.
Because the two sides have different attitudes towards hand-to-hand combat.
It is false to say that the Northern Army did not pay attention to hand-to-hand combat. But Beijing's firepower advantage is too obvious. What can be solved with firepower should not be solved with physical combat. This has become the consensus of the upper-level generals of the Northern Army. There are many reasons for the establishment of this consensus.
One important aspect is cost.
When a soldier dies, pensions and other messy expenses are required. And how much gunpowder expenditure is in each war field. What's more, the higher-ups also support this attitude.
After all, firearms are the future development direction.
Finding ways to make better use of firearms tactics and researching better firearms is a direction that He Xi has always advocated.
In this direction, hand-to-hand combat is indispensable and is the last resort. But it is not the most important training and research subject. But it was different for the Southern Army.
When all kinds of materials are in short supply, many trainings are not good.
Like a salvo. Gunpowder is reserved for fighting.
In this case, where is the training? In the end, the cheapest option is of course hand-to-hand combat. Before, Fu Youde did not let the other party see this. At this moment, when the Northern Army began to countercharge, the two sides were fighting in a melee.
Not long after the stalemate. The Northern Army was pushed to the river by the Southern Army.
The Northern Army brigade watched anxiously from across the river. However, no reinforcements could be sent. Only a small number of reinforcements were sent through small bridges or directly across the river to support them. But the number of people is too small and it is impossible to affect the overall situation.
At this time, there was a lot of sound of horse hooves coming from the Confederate army.
It attracted the attention of the Northern Army.
Without him, even though Fu Youde had almost all the cavalry in his hands. But when facing the Northern Army cavalry, they still did not have an advantage. At this moment, the cavalry on both sides were entangled with each other and restrained each other.
It was impossible for Fu Youde to find more cavalry.
After all, the two sides have been at a standoff for these days. If they haven't figured out the general situation on the other side, it is impossible.
It is impossible for Fu Youde to summon so many cavalry at once.
Soon, they saw it. This is not cavalry. But mounted infantry. The horses they rode were more like war horses, and many of them were not even horses, but a large number of donkeys, mules and the like.
Some tall soldiers could drag their legs while riding on donkeys, which looked funny. Very funny.
But it's not funny at all.
