Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 464

At the end of the morning eclipse on February [-]th, Shen Chen's fleet set sail.

Go south along the Weishui River to the junction of the Weishui River and the Yellow River, and then turn the rudder and enter the upper reaches of the Yellow River, going backwards with difficulty.

The upper reaches of the Yellow River are full of waves, and the speed of the boats is actually very slow, but relying on the soldiers to row the boats desperately, and stepping on the hubs to make the paddle wheels on both sides of the boat run, they can still move forward.

But almost as soon as they appeared at the mouth of the Yellow River, Cao Jun on the other side had already spotted them, and the sound of bone whistles, gongs, drums, and horns suddenly shook the sky.

Xu Huangjun who was stationed at Puban Ferry in the distance was alarmed for the first time.

In several camps with horns, groups of soldiers emerged from behind the crenels of the rammed-earth wall, with their bows and knives out of their sheaths.

Everywhere was the sound of clattering iron armor leaves, anxious and angry urging, orderly shouts, short and hasty orders and sharp police whistles, all of which made the wall of the village into a mess.

Standing on the bow of the boat, Shen Chen looked into the distance. He saw that Cao Jun had built a long section of wall along the Yellow River, most of which were made of wooden fences, connecting the rammed earth walls and extending all the way to the north.

The clever thing about these fences is that they are not connected together, but are divided into sections through the rammed earth wall, which not only effectively prevents surprise attacks, but also prevents them from being burned by fire.

In addition, there are a large number of tall oars and towers behind the wall of the village, on which there are many Cao Jun crossbowmen standing, looking at the river from a distance, staring intently at the Han army ships on the Yellow River with extremely vigilant eyes Team.

"Grand Governor, their wall is built a little further away from the river, and our ships seem to be unable to attack behind their wall."

The side general Ma Dai raised his eyes and looked out.

Shen Chen said: "Xu Huang is from Hedong, so naturally he doesn't know the terrain here. He built this section of the wall that is more than a hundred miles long along the mountains in the north. It cannot be approached, it cannot be condescending to shoot, and it can also block the river bank so that our chariots and horses cannot disembark."

Ma Dai frowned and said, "But if that's the case, it's as if we are attacking the city wall. If we attack by force, will there be too many casualties?"

"Ha ha."

Shen Chen smiled, glanced along the long defense line, and ordered: "The order is to disperse the schools, and attack Cao Jun at a distance of ten miles from each school."

"Scattered schools?"

Ma Dai scratched his head in confusion and said, "Why do you want to fight like this?"

Shen Chen smiled and said, "Scatter the enemy forces."

The orthodox military system of the Han Dynasty was 500 men for one song, and five songs for one, that is, 500 men.

The two departments are one school, and the person in charge is the school lieutenant.

It's not the kind of miscellaneous lieutenant who is randomly appointed, but the heavy lieutenant among the five schools of the Northern Army.

The entire Northern Army consisted of only five schools, and it was the most elite Central Army during the Han Ling Emperor period.

In the past, when the lords fought in a melee, all cats and dogs were often generals and lieutenants, but in fact, the head of the fifth school of the Northern Army was just a general.

Therefore, during the period of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, military officers such as General Lang, Xiaowei, and Sima were still very valuable, but now they are rotten.

However, after the establishment of the Southern Han Dynasty, it continued in accordance with the military system of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Now Shen Chen brought over 5 people, that is, the tenth school.

In other words, his order was to let each school in the fleet launch attacks along the river, 5000 people every ten miles, and attack the wall in that direction.

There are many cavalry on Cao Jun's side, and their boats are going up against the current, not much faster than walking, and they can definitely keep up with their speed.

Once the time comes, Cao Wei will divide his troops to fight him, which is obviously more beneficial to them.

Soon the fleet began to disperse. Shen Chen's main force dropped the anchor on the spot and stopped at Puban.

The rest of the troops began to drive upstream.

In the distance, Xu Huang stood on the high oar and watched the situation of the Han army. When he saw this scene, he frowned.

Seeing this situation, his general Xu Shang quickly said: "General, what does the enemy want?"

Xu Huang frowned and said: "Although we used the wall to defend against them forming an formation with chariots and horses, the line of defense is still too long. As expected, Shen Chen must want to divide his troops to attack."

"Divided troops to attack?"

Xu Shang was surprised: "How dare he divide the troops?"

Xu Huang pointed to the distance and said, "Didn't you see that his soldiers didn't disembark? Although dividing troops is a big taboo, he is in a safe place and we can't attack his ships. He relies on this."

"Then what should we do?"

Xu Shang hesitated endlessly.

Xu Huang shook his head and said, "We can only divide our troops to defend."

In Sun Tzu's Art of War, it is a taboo to divide troops and attack on all sides, because from the perspective of offense, the troops are scattered and cannot effectively wipe out the enemy's active forces. From the perspective of active defense, if there is no reserve force, the loss of one place may mean the collapse of the entire front.

The division of troops leads to insufficient troops, and it is easy to be defeated by the enemy one by one. Moreover, insufficient firepower makes it difficult to defend and attack.At the same time, the division of troops will also make coordination and command difficult, making it easier for the enemy to find loopholes.

But the problem was that Shen Chen's army was on the Yellow River, and without disembarking, Xu Huang couldn't muster a living force to launch a surprise attack on him, and naturally he couldn't defeat him one by one.

If he did not choose to divide his troops to defend, then the enemy would break through the wall from various positions and at the same time form an encirclement around Puban.

Xu Huang's troops are far inferior to Shen Chen's. Now he has less than [-] troops on hand. Except for a small part of the troops on the western front in Bingzhou, most of them are in the hands of Cao Zhen.

With insufficient troops and being attacked from all sides at the same time, the wall he built was not a Great Wall to defend against the enemy, but a dilapidated house with air leaks from all sides.

At present, Xu Huang has no choice but to separate out various departments, each with about 3000 people, to carry out point-to-point defense.

Soon Cao Jun was quickly assigned, and a large number of Cao Jun followed Shen Chen's boats to the north from the headquarters camp, and the troops were dispersed. Xu Huang's side had less than 4000 people, relying on the riverside village wall to die. Staring at the river in the distance.

When it was noon, Shen Chen saw that it was almost done, so he gave the order to attack.

The big boat put down hundreds of small boats, and more than ten people from each boat began to land. The boats carried some ladders. The Han army gathered a team by the river. The army formation of about 5000 people slowly approached the direction of the wall.

Cao Jun was the first to do it, and the sparse bows and crossbows shot upwards to the sky, condescending and began to oppress the Han army.

But it is a pity that Cao's army was severely divided, resulting in a shortage of archers. Most of the hundreds of arrows fell on the open ground, and a few shot into the formation, but were only blocked by shields, causing almost no casualties.

Then came the second wave and the third wave of crossbows.By the time the fourth wave of bows and crossbows struck, the Han army had already reached the wall of the village and began to attack the wall of the village.

After an order, the wailing Han army officially climbed the wall of the village, and a ladder was placed on the wall of the village. Cao Jun behind the wall stabbed down with spears and spears from above, and the soldiers of the Han army below also used long halberds. The spear stabs upwards.

The sound of shouts and fighting, the sound of weapons fighting, the groaning and hissing of people when knives and guns pierce the flesh, all kinds of sounds filled the battlefield in an instant; The Han army rushed towards Cao Jun like a tide, and the two sides fell into a fierce fight.

"The wall on the right! Go to the Liangshi people! Go!"

"Kill it."

"Hurry up and get the manpower, we will rush up immediately."

"Ah, someone give me a hand."

"Hurry up, throw stones outside, don't let them come up."

The low-level officers of the enemy and our soldiers shouted one after another.

Cao Jun on the wall of the village used rolling stones, wood, and even lime to throw it outside without money.

The Han army under the wall of the village set up a ladder, hung it on the wall with the barbs on the ladder, and began to climb up the steps.

They used shields and battle armor to resist the knives and guns, biting the ring-shouldered knife with their teeth, and under the cover of their teammates with spears, they counterattacked and charged against the enemy.

From time to time, some Han troops fell down like kites with broken strings, but there were also Cao troops who were pulled off by the spears and spears that stabbed down.

The war was brutal.

The most central wall has become a meat grinder.

A large number of soldiers of the Han army held ring swords, howled like wolves, and filed up like ants along the more than ten wooden ladders built on the wall of the village.

The roars, echoes, weapons blocking, and howling and humming on the wall almost never stopped.

From noon to feeding time, it took more than an hour to fight back and forth.

The blood of the soldiers on both sides was sprayed everywhere on the wall of the village, which was less than a hundred and eighty steps away. In many places, the yellowish-brown rammed earth was completely soaked in blood, turning into a dark red.

Standing on the tall oar a little behind, Xu Huang commanded while watching the situation. He saw a man riding a horse on the river bank from a distance.

There are about 500 people around that person, but as time goes by, there are fewer and fewer, because those people are the reserve team. Once there is a gap in the offense in some places, he will immediately fill the reserve team to exert offensive pressure.

His specific appearance was unclear because he was too far away, but a big banner was erected behind him.

There seems to be a faint word "Shen" written on it!

Chen Chen!

Xu Huang gritted his teeth.

The person opposite is Cao Wei's arch enemy.

Because of him, the Battle of Xiangfan, the battle that determined the turning point between Cao Wei and the Southern Han Dynasty, was defeated.

Now the other party was standing ostentatiously by the river, with only a hundred people around him. At that moment, Xu Huang was even considering whether to take the opportunity to make a surprise attack and kill that person.

But remembering that this person had once beheaded Cao Hong, and fought in the north and south in the early years, he might not be inferior to him in force, so he could only give up this idea in the end.

The fighting continued.

There are 2000 more soldiers on Shen Chen's side than on the other side.

However, the Cao army was defending after all, occupying a favorable terrain, so the casualties on both sides were greater than that of the Han army.

In addition to filling the gap in the attack, the reservists had to constantly transport wounded soldiers back and forth. The soldiers suffered a lot of casualties. Many of them were exhausted, sweat and blood intertwined, and they could not lift their arms.

It was not until the third quarter of the feeding time that the sound of the Han army's Mingjin sounded.

Only then did the soldiers heave a sigh of relief, they all picked up the weapons in their hands and turned around to run. Some used shields to cover them, and some backed up to prevent the enemy from chasing them out. Xu Huang didn't have the courage to launch any counterattack at all due to the orderly retreat.

At this time, there were already hundreds of corpses under the wall of the village, almost [-]% of them belonged to the Han army, and only [-]% belonged to the Cao army.

However, some people in the Cao army were shot or stabbed to death on the wall of the stronghold. Although the battle loss ratio between the two sides was not exaggerated to the point where the Han army lost two and the Cao army lost one, it was probably between [-] and [-].

Both Han Jun and Cao Jun seized this hard-won rest time and returned to their original positions. Some began to pant and lie down, some began to eat, and some simply stayed where they were. It's like a dead person who doesn't want to move for a moment.

Such a close combat is a huge test for the physical strength of the soldiers on both sides.

And not only on the Puban side, but also along the Yellow River in the north, this kind of situation has been happening all the time. The Han army divided up and raided, and every ten miles on the battlefield, the two sides fought fiercely and became entangled with each other.

Waiting until the end of feeding time in the afternoon, a group of unexpected guests came to Sangquan.

At this time, there were almost no defenders in Sangquan, and the market outside the city had long been dispersed due to the temporary war. The Han people living in Xiangting saw hundreds of cavalry dressed as Huns appearing outside the city from a distance. .

An old man watched for a moment, then suddenly took a step forward and walked slowly towards the group of Huns.

The rural pavilion outside Sangquan is open, and there are farmlands reclaimed around it. It is the time when farming is busy in spring. Although there are constant wars in the west, the people still have to cultivate. Therefore, there are many farmers in the fields at this time, and some village pavilions come and go. pedestrian.

Seeing the old man approaching the Huns over there, someone said, "Old man, why are you looking for those Huns?"

The old man smiled and said: "It's all right."

Say or go forward.

Soon the Huns galloped to the front.

Deng Ai reined in the horse and looked down at the old man without speaking.

He can't speak the Hun dialect.

The old man smiled and said, "You are the Han army, right?"

Deng Ai turned pale with shock, instinctively wanted to hold the knife, but soon stopped, and said calmly: "We are the Huns."

"The Huns have been exposed to the wind and sun all year round in Monan, and their skin is not as good as yours."

The old man pointed to his knife and said: "Besides, the knives they use are all wrought iron scimitars. I haven't seen them use ring-shouldered steel knives."

Deng Ai pondered for a moment, then asked: "The old man stopped us, what's the matter?"

The old man replied: "Cao Jun enslaved us and let us farm here. They took more than [-]% of the food, and the villagers could not survive. Uncle Liu's benevolence is famous all over the world. We all know this, and we are willing to As a Han citizen, I don't want to be a Wei slave, so I came here to tell the general where Cao's grain is stored."

"Oh?"

Deng Ai said happily: "Please tell the old man."

The old man pointed to the southeast and said, "In Yucheng, which is more than thirty miles away from here!"

"Thank you, old sir!"

Deng Ai bowed his hands and saluted him, then turned his horse's head and said, "Let's go!"

The old man looked at the direction they left, and murmured to himself: "It's too hard to be a Wei slave. I used to be a Han citizen, so I should go back to the land of the big Han and die."

(End of this chapter)