national surname chiming

Chapter 72 The Brave Wins
After mobilizing the troops, Shen Shuren boarded the ship himself, taking advantage of the dawn to lead the troops on the journey——

He went there in person to boost morale, and also to put on a stance so that the morale of Liu Xiyao's side could be better hit at that time.

But in order to ensure personal safety, he will not be on the front line in the decisive battle.At that time, just hide on the boat and provide firepower and moral support to the friendly forces on the shore.Zhang Huangyan, Zuo Zixiong and others are still in charge of going ashore to command.

Shen Shuren now has an integrated regiment training guard at hand, and there are a thousand non-staff members of the Shen family and sailors.

Among these people, about 1000 people were scattered in Qishui County and several other counties to undertake defense work.In addition to the previous several battles, there were hundreds of casualties in total.

Therefore, the number of troops for this attack is only 3000 at full count.Fortunately, they all selected the elite as much as possible, and left the wounded soldiers to defend the city.

Liu Xiyao on the opposite side had only more than 6000 fresh troops before. After seven or eight days of delay, some of the lightly wounded barely regained their combat effectiveness, and the active force is estimated to have risen to [-].

Just looking at the number of people is still nearly [-] times that of the army, field battles seem a little risky.

But Shen Shuren was very confident, he knew that Liu Xiyao's elite cavalry had been destroyed by Liu Xiong and Yidougu before.At least half of the Laoying brothers were killed by Niu Ziquan's deceitful sneak attack.Of the remaining half, a considerable number died in the trap of the storm at the west gate of Qizhou.

Therefore, those veterans who have fought with Liu Xiyao for more than two years and joined the army before surrendering to the imperial court last time will not exceed 2000 at most. The remaining 7000 of the [-] people are either fish belly or newly caught young men in Huangzhou, so there is nothing to fear.

……

Watching the fleet go away, a group of female relatives on the tower of the south gate of Qizhou City were also uneasy, and some of them cried bitterly.

If Shen Shuren and Zhang Huangyan were going to fight in the field, their wives and concubines would naturally be worried, after all, they were both civil servants.

Zhang Huangyan's wife, Sun, couldn't help but think that her father and uncle died in the rebellion, which made her mother and aunt widowed.He also had some resentment towards Shen Shuren for letting Zhang Huangyan join the army.

Chen Yuanyuan and Dong Xiaowan were also a little sad.Chen Yuanyuan was trained to sing songs since she was a child, and she didn't understand the righteousness of the country. Dong Xiaowan's family was more strict, and she came from a wealthy family.

Although Dong Xiaowan is the youngest among the three, she is quite responsible at the moment, tactfully persuading Mrs. Sun:

"Sister Sun, don't worry, Big Brother Zhang is proficient in archery and horses, and Zuo Dusi is brave and brave. My young master let him go to help him get more credit, so that he can be promoted together in the future.

After annihilating Liu Xiong and Yidou Valley last time, the young master sent a battle report to Mr. Yang Ge, which said that Brother Zhang personally shot down Liu Xiong's mount with arrows and stones for reinforcements, and then Zuo Dusi took the opportunity to kill him.I heard that Mr. Yang Ge replied later, and even mentioned a word of praise.Although it is not worthy of direct promotion, the accumulation of more should not be underestimated. "

What Dong Xiaowan mentioned was also witnessed by her own eyes.

It was about ten days ago, when Shen Shuren turned on the light to work at night and wrote official documents, she was beside her red sleeves and added fragrance to help spread the paper and grind the ink.

Strictly speaking, when Liu Xiyao's eldest son, Liu Xiong, was shot down and beheaded, it was impossible to find out who shot the arrow.

But it is better to be able to benefit from outsiders than from one's own family. Since there is no evidence, Shen Shuren must rest on his cousin's head.

Mrs. Sun had never heard of this before, but now she realized that the uncle was giving money to her husband's resume, and she couldn't help but feel very ashamed:

"Sister Dong, my sister is short-sighted, don't be as knowledgeable as I am. You are kind, but in this troubled world, alas..."

Dong Xiaowan managed to squeeze out a smile, and said comfortingly:
"Those who achieve great things don't care about small details. In this troubled world, if you want to live in seclusion by yourself, you are afraid that the tree wants to be quiet and the wind will not stop. Only with power, power and soldiers can you keep the army and people safe, and keep your relatives and friends old."

……

Let's not mention the resentment of those with long hair and short knowledge behind.

After Shen Shuren set sail with the fleet, the first part of the voyage of thirty miles was completed in just an hour.

This section runs downstream along the Qishui River. The rivers in the Dabie Mountains have a relatively large drop, and the water speed is fast, so the boat speed is naturally fast.

When they arrived at Huangqiankou Town, they didn't see any trace of Liu Xiyao's troops. As expected, they had already retreated, so the whereabouts of Shen's army have been kept secret up to now.

Liu Xiyao was so envious that he didn't even let go of the scouts at the back of the palace, and just withdrew all at once. At most, he just divided the supplies and soldiers into two parts.

All of this was obviously due to Shen Shuren being paralyzed by the exhaustion of the enemy for many days before, which made Liu Xiyao feel that he was very timid.

"It seems that the suddenness of this battle has added another layer of protection. I ordered the fleet to sail as far as possible to the center of the river for a few miles after entering the Yangtze River, and to sail along the waterway on the Ezhou side of the south bank. some.

In addition, troop carriers are not allowed to fly flags, and the formation should be as dispersed as possible.Make sure that even if you see a ship from the other side of the river, you cannot confirm whether it is a military ship. "

After Shen Shuren observed the situation clearly, he immediately added an order, and of course the sailors of the Shen family immediately and unconditionally executed it.

The second part of the voyage, sailing in the Yangtze River, is much slower than the first part because it is against the current.

Fortunately, the sailors of the Shen family are the second elite in the world today, and they are very good at using crosswinds. The hard sails used by the Shen family's ships are also of good quality.The flow speed of the Yangtze River is far lower than that of mountain rivers, and the wind can withstand the water, so it continues to move forward steadily.

In the area of ​​Huangzhou and Ezhou, the land road on both sides of the river is even more difficult. When Su Dongpo came here to serve as the deputy envoy of regiment training, it was on the bank of the Yangtze River between Huanggang County and Qishui County that he wrote the "Red Cliff Ode"——

Although Su Dongpo actually made a mistake and mistook Chibiji in Huangzhou for the Chibi Ancient Battlefield, the real Chibi Ancient Battlefield should be further upstream in Wuchang.

But in any case, the words describing the scenery in "Ode to the Red Cliff" were seen by Su Dongpo during his on-the-spot tour. A true portrayal.

When Liu Xiyao's troops passed through these areas, they had to climb over the mountains a little bit, which made their progress even slower.

But they didn't have a better way to go, and they had only one choice - if they didn't go along the river, but went deeper inland to find their way, they would really have to toss about in the mountains of the Dabie Mountains.

When he first came to attack, he was able to drive the troops so far in two days and one night, because he chose to force the army for a sneak attack.This time the withdrawal was not so urgent, and it was normal to have to bring so much belongings, go to camp for three days and sleep at night.

After a day and a night of sailing, Shen Shuren's troops finally arrived at Lanxi Town near Qishui County in the early morning of the next day. It was a small town at the mouth of the Xishui River that flows into the Yangtze River, and it was also blocked on Liu Xiyao's way home.

After crossing the Xishui River, further north is the boundary of Huanggang County, which is also Liu Xiyao's base.

Before Liu Xiyao's troops arrived, Shen Shuren immediately ordered Zuo Zixiong and Zhang Huangyan to take the main force to the shore and line up, relying on the original terrain of the town as much as possible.

Not long after I was busy, as the sky turned bright, the lookouts of the officers and soldiers discovered through binoculars: On the mountain road along the river to the south, there appeared a long snake formation of thieves and baggage troops.

The thieves didn't have binoculars, so naturally they couldn't spot the enemy at the same time.

Shen Shuren didn't go ashore, and Zhang Huangyan couldn't ask for instructions, so he immediately ordered: "Zuo Dusi, let the soldiers hide first! This branch of the bandits is just luggage and has no combat effectiveness. Bring it closer and then ambush, or they will scare away!"

Zuo Zixiong thought about it for a while, but he also took it seriously, and immediately asked the soldiers to hide in the town.

The thieves' baggage team approached carelessly, and when they had only the last one or two miles left, they gradually realized that the atmosphere was not normal—there was no sound of people or dogs barking in Lanxi Town.Even if most of the original people had fled, it wouldn't be so terrifyingly quiet.

However, by the time they could hear the abnormality by listening, it was obviously too late.As the convoy of supplies stopped and the general sent out scouts to check, the officers and soldiers had rushed out of the town.

The bandit's supply team brought so many ox carts, donkey carts, rickshaws, and of course they had no time to escape. After a while of killing, they easily captured hundreds of people.

There were nearly a thousand people who abandoned their supplies and ran away in a panic.

……

Liu Xiyao's main force was about [-] or [-] miles behind the transport troops. After more than an hour, he was rewarded for his loyalty and defeat.

"Report! Your Majesty! The big thing is not good! The officers and soldiers suddenly appeared in Lanxi Town in front of us and blocked our army's return along the Xishui Ferry! All the food, grass and property that were easy to harvest and loot were taken away!"

Liu Xiyao was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped: "Official army? Where is the official army? Could it be Zuo Liangyu's men and horses who came across the river from Ezhou? They came so fast... I knew I shouldn't have acted out of anger a few days ago. Killed Zuo Liangyu's concubine's family."

Until now, Liu Xiyao's first reaction was still thinking of Zuo Liangyu.

No way, Shen Shuren gave him the impression that he was too cowardly, too useless, too shameless.

"No, no, it has nothing to do with Zuo Liangyu, it's just that Shen Gouguan came to chase us with his troops!" the scout cried mournfully.

"Officer Shen Dog? How did he get ahead of us? It's impossible!" Liu Xiyao couldn't figure it out for a moment.

It was his adoptive son Liu Sandao who thought for a while and speculated:

"Not good! Father! Could it be that they walked across the Yangtze River? At dusk yesterday, we saw boats approaching in the distance. You haven't rested at night, hurry up to us!"

It was only then that Liu Xiyao realized that the Shen family was a family of maritime merchants, and their strength on the water was extraordinary, and they really did have this strength.

Liu Xiyao gritted his teeth: "I don't care! Things are up to now, we can only move forward together! Take back food and grass! Take back the way back! Soldiers follow me to advance quickly! When we meet on a narrow road, the brave wins!"

(End of this chapter)