Late Tang Dynasty: I

Chapter 225 Zhu Zhen vs Ge Congzhou

In the fourth year of Tang Zhonghe, shortly after Zhu Wen took office in Xuanwu, Zhu Wen joined forces with Shi Pu and sent Zhu Zhen to Yanzidu on the bank of Sishui River in Suzhou to defeat the army of Huangchao.

Also after that battle, brothers Ge Congzhou, Huo Cun, and Zhang Guiba came to surrender one after another.

There was a time when Ge Congzhou was still a general under Zhu Zhen.

It has only been more than a year since Sishui Pass parted, the two met again, and they have already met each other at arms length.

Ge Congzhou had [-] infantry and [-] cavalry.

After Zhu Zhen joined forces with Wen Zefeng, the whole army had 5000 infantry, [-] fine cavalry, and more than [-] auxiliary soldiers.

But the quality of the soldiers is completely different.

The [-] infantry led by Ge Congzhou were all selected from Zhu and Wen's armies and trained into the army.Three thousand elite cavalry are elite, but their armor rate is only [-]%.

The old base of Zhu Zhen's Zuohuwei army is the elite long straight army, Jianrui battalion, and broken formation army under Zhu Wen's command. In the battle with Tuoba Sigong, the Zuohuwei army lost three or four thousand, but the additions were also The strong and strong soldiers in the Fufang army were also strong and strong in the Jingyuan army and the Sichuan army.

His Majesty the Emperor turned Zuo Huwei's army into knives. Zuo Huwei's army made the most military achievements and received the most military pay. As long as there are captured soldiers and armors, Zuo Huwei's army will pick them first.

This allowed Zuo Huwei's armor rate to reach a terrifying 100%, and even the auxiliary soldiers' armor rate far exceeded that of the general army.

The armor-piercing arrows made by the Ministry of War are rationed by other armies, and the Zuo Shence Army only supplies [-] armor-piercing arrows.

But there is no limit to Zuo Huwei's army, they can take as much as they can, and after taking the rest, let other armies divide it.

Zhu Zhen is very rich now, except for the newly formed Modao Army of Suo Xun and the Silver Spear Army of Yang Shihou who will be reorganized, there is no one bigger than them.

Although the force is only half of Ge Congzhou's.

But Zhu Zhen was confident that if the two armies fought against each other, he could hold Ge Congzhou on the ground and rub him back and forth a hundred times.

The two armies confronted each other under the city of Bozhou, on the south bank of Woshui.

Shangke, the governor of Bozhou, watched from the tower with a terrified expression on his face. The [-] to [-] troops below the city were waiting in full formation, with a fierce aura rising to the sky.

Zhu Zhen's formation was quite bold, and she lined up between Bozhou City and Ge Congzhou's army, without considering the risk of a pincer attack between the two armies.

Can Shangke dare to send troops?Although there are more than 1 infantry in the city, how dare they go out of the city, for fear of being defeated, and Zhu Zhen's army takes advantage of the trend to take Bozhou, then everything will be over.

And Ge Congzhou also had a dignified expression. He had seen Zhu Zhen's strength with his own eyes, and most of the generals in the Bian army were brought out by Zhu Zhen.

At the beginning, Ge Congzhou followed Zhu Zhen to Zizhou and Qingzhou, which were under the jurisdiction of the Pinglu Army, to recruit soldiers. Shi Pu sent a general with 2 horses to ambush in Weishandang.

At that time, they only brought 3000 troops, and with the sound of drums, all the ambush soldiers came out. Zhu Zhen didn't rush, and defeated the ambush soldiers after a few charges.

One is the bravery of the general, and the other is Zhu Zhen's formation of troops, which is already superb.

Using one's own strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses has won the essence of the Bazi Art of War.

"Only by defeating Zhu Zhen's army can we return to Bozhou!"

The general Wang Yanshou said: "General, I am willing to lead the cavalry to charge, and the general can lead the infantry to follow!"

Ge Congzhou shook his head. He saw that there were more than a hundred chariots in front of Zhu Zhen's formation, and there were also in the Xuanwu Army. These were the iron cavalry that Zhu Wen specially used to deal with Li Ke. These three thousand cavalry are not enough to feed the hundred chariots.

He rode out into battle, and when he was two hundred steps away from Zhu Zhen's army, he saluted deeply.

Zhu Zhen also understood before the battle, and rode out on horseback unhurriedly.

Ge Congzhou clasped his fists and said, "After a long time, how is your mentor?"

Zhu Zhen shook her head, kept her eyes on Ge Congzhou, and said, "You and I are not master and apprentice, so why do you say that?"

Ge Congzhou sighed: "All my military leadership skills are all from my mentor. Why don't I have a teacher-student relationship, but today I will meet with swords and soldiers!"

Zhu Zhen said: "I don't want to, but what can I do if I am loyal to the king's affairs!"

Zhu Zhen did not persuade Ge Congzhou to surrender, and Ge Congzhou did not persuade Zhu Zhen to surrender. Persuading him to surrender at this time is an insult to the other party.

Ge Congzhou said: "Master, can we not fight today? How about you and I each having a truce?"

Zhu Zhen shook her head, without speaking, she turned her horse's head and returned to the main formation.

Ge Congzhou also shook his head and let out a long sigh.

Respectively return to formation.

Boom...boom...boom...boom
The sound of war drums.

Ge Congzhou was at the front of the camp of [-] traps, all of which had knives on their waists and these five short spears on their bodies, holding a shield in one hand and a spear in the other.

Behind the trapped camp are rows of archers.

After that came two rows of shield soldiers with armor and short knives. Spearmen were sandwiched between the shield soldiers. Every dozen or so people left a gap, which was the passage for the archers to retreat.

Behind it is the sword general who enforces the military law. There is a small phalanx on each wing to protect the sides.

Zhu Zhen's army had a similar formation, except that there were more than a hundred chariots in front of the formation, and each chariot was pulled by three horses, with a horizontal knife seven feet on the side and three feet off the ground.

Chariots are still quite threatening on this plain.

"kill!"

"kill!"

With the sound of drumming, the forwards of the two armies charge forward, while the central army slowly presses forward, and the two wings of men and horses gradually bend.

Zhu Zhen looked at Ge Cong's trapped camp in the Zhou army, her eyes narrowed.

Even if the chariot is not against the cavalry, it is a first-class killer against infantry, but it is very easy to destroy the chariot, as long as there are brave dead soldiers.

The two were so familiar, it was expected that they would send each other away.

Tang Jun rushed to the front with chariots. Each chariot originally had four infantry, three archers, equipped with waist knives, strong bows, full armor, and a groom.

But there was only a groom on these hundreds of chariots.

The chariot rushed towards the camp of Biancao, and the forward battalion of his army followed closely.

puff!
When the two armies joined the battle, the chariots knocked the trapped soldiers into the air, and the side knives killed several people into a line of blood.

Suddenly the horse's head sank, and the huge inertia of the chariot hit the horse's body. The groom in the chariot was lost and vacated, drew a long parabola, fell to the ground, and was immediately killed by the Bian army next to him.

Only at this time did they see that the limbs of the horses pulling the chariot were all broken, and they were still whining incessantly.

The dead soldiers of the Bian army who chopped off the horse's legs were either cut into two pieces by side knives, or were hit to death by horses or chariots alive. The scene was extremely bloody.

After a while, more than a hundred chariots were destroyed, but there were not many left in the three thousand camps.

Hu Hao, the commander of Zuo Huwei's army who served as the vanguard, brandished a long knife and shouted: "Kill!"

Take the lead, break into the front, the army passes by, and the Bian army is trapped in the camp, and the rest are slaughtered.

The shield soldiers continued to move forward and slammed into the front of the Bian army. The spearmen searched for gaps to stab, and the swordsmen swung their blades and slashed at each other because of the shield soldiers on both sides.

At this time, it was time for the archers to duel, and the rounds of bows and arrows were like raindrops, shooting into the opponent's army formation.

The arrows of the Bian army were shot at the heavy armor, and they had almost no power. They happened to injure a few people along the gaps in the armor, but the armor-piercing arrows of the Tang army were different. After a round of arrow rain, all the arrows hit by the arrows pierced through the armor. into the meat.

There was a sudden scream.

Ge Congzhou gradually felt that something was wrong. He was in the middle army and watched the front soldiers fall one by one, while the Tang army hardly moved at all.

With a serious expression on his face, he waved the blue command flag.

The shield soldiers in front of the formation immediately made several gaps and let the Tang army enter the formation, while the archers in the Bian army dropped their bows and drew their waist sabers.

Bows and arrows are a good thing. When Huang Chao first launched his army, he didn't have many bows and arrows. When he met the archers of the army, there was only one way to mix them with the enemy army and fight hand-to-hand, and the archers would lose their effect.

Ge Congzhou saw the strength of the Tang army's archers, so he used this move naturally.

Ge Congzhou concentrated all the armored soldiers on the front and two wings. As for the unarmored infantry, he also arranged armor-piercing weapons.

A short spear with a sharp tip and a handle made of heavy wood. It has been soaked in water to increase its weight. A short spear weighs tens of catties. Although the projectile range is not far, it is only thirty or forty steps, but the armor-piercing ability is indeed much higher than that of bows and arrows.

Thousands of spear throwers shot at Zhu Zhen's army with short spears all over the sky.

Poof... poof...

Immediately, countless people were pierced by flying spears and died on the spot!

(End of this chapter)