Qiming 1158

Chapter 927 The cold icy rain slapped randomly on the face
Seeing the troops dispatched from the city, Wu Gong was very happy.

He believed that he had an advantage in field battles, but siege battles would bring more casualties.

As soon as his flag was waved, an army immediately stepped forward and launched a fierce battle with the peasant army Gao Meng who was attacking in the city.

The two sides were fighting against each other, and the army collided. You stabbed me, I stabbed you, and they hit back and forth.

However, this was not what Zhao Yucheng was after.

If Gao Meng couldn't penetrate the Song army's defense line, the Song army would have the upper hand, and the three thousand raiding troops would be much less fortunate.

In fact, they were already fierce, and under the fierce counterattack of the Song army, they were gradually unable to support them.

This is a strengthened brigade-level team under the First Division led by Zhao Yucheng himself. The commander is one of the more than 100 people who followed Zhao Yucheng to the south, named Lin Xun.

Seeing that the battle situation was unfavorable and the reinforcements were blocked and unable to respond, Lin Xun secretly thought that the problem was very serious.

At this time, a light rain was gradually falling in the sky, and the cold wind was blowing, which was very uncomfortable. Lin Xun felt that he could not continue, so he decided to bring the rear of the army to give more people a chance to escape and move to the west.

There are no enemies there.

So Lin Xun gave an order to let his lieutenant take more rear troops to withdraw first, and personally stand in front and cut off the rear.

The lieutenant was unwilling, and was ordered to die by Lin Xun, so he had to lead the troops to retreat from the west and gradually leave the battlefield.

Wu Gong tried to chase, but Lin Xun personally led the soldiers to launch a counter-charge, and he couldn't help Lin Xun for a while.

In a fit of rage, he ordered more cavalry guards to rush straight to where Lin Xun was, rushing Lin Xun's guards into a mess.

Lin Xun was caught off guard and surrounded by Wu Gong's personal soldiers, unable to escape.

When he was exhausted, he glanced in the direction of Nanchang City for the last time and launched his final attack.

He chopped off the leg of a horse with a knife, causing the horse Song Bing to fall to the ground and fall to his death. He turned around again and was hit on the head with a hammer by a cavalry soldier who followed him, and he died in a heroic battle.

After Lin Xun died in battle, his subordinates were extremely grieved and indignant, and they fought hard.

More than a thousand peasants in the rear of the palace were surrounded and wiped out by the Song army in the ensuing battle.

But relying on their deadly battle, another part of the peasant army was able to escape and retreated in the direction of Junzhou to the west.

Standing on the city wall, Zhao Yucheng watched the destruction of Lin Xun's group, gritted his teeth, clenched his fists with both hands, and his nails almost pierced into his flesh.

But he still made the right decision.

Ming Jin withdrew his troops and ordered the Gao Meng retreat that could not break through the Song army's blockade, admitting the fact that the peasant army was insufficient in combat, and the tactics failed.

As time went on, the light rain had a tendency to develop into moderate rain. Seeing that the soldiers were soaked in the rain, Wu Gong did not force the pursuit, but he stopped when he saw it. for policy use.

After the First World War, the peasant army lost thousands of soldiers, and its morale was low.

Zhao Yucheng resigned himself helplessly, closed the city gate, prepared to fight the city defense, and would never leave the city easily.

After this battle, Wu Gong gained the upper hand, and also tested out the lack of field ability of the peasant army, so he was more confident to win this battle.

However, things didn't turn out as he expected.

This battle is already in the middle and late November of the third year of Hongwu. With the advent of this rain, the temperature in Nanchang has dropped sharply, and the cold wind has suddenly risen. the trend of.

It was both wind and rain, so war was naturally very difficult to fight.

But if it's just that it's not easy to fight a war, it doesn't matter, but the problem is that Wu Gong's problem is not just a problem of inconvenience.

A night passed, and a large number of soldiers had a cold and fever, and lay in bed and could not get up.

Another night passed, and more soldiers had a cold and fever, and lay in bed unable to get up.

Wu Gong personally went to inspect the situation of the wounded and sick, and found that the number of soldiers who had a cold and fever so that they were unable to fight surged, and the wounded battalion could hardly live.

Wu Gong found the military doctor and asked the military doctor to give an explanation. The military doctor said helplessly that the temperature had dropped sharply, and it was windy and raining. Yesterday, most of the soldiers were drenched in the rain, and the army lacked ginger to ward off the cold to boil water. Only a large number of soldiers fell ill.

"Why isn't there enough ginger? Wasn't there an accurate count before the battle?!"

Wu Gong found the quartermaster and spat at them.

The quartermaster looked aggrieved.

"I didn't bring much when I set off. The warehouse at the rear said that it will be replenished later. I haven't seen it yet. I told you about it, but you were in a hurry to send troops, so I didn't care."

Wu Gong thought for a while, and was suddenly speechless.

Because of this incident, he really remembered that the quartermaster told him before dispatching troops that many military supplies were not available except for food.

At that time, Wu Gong was in a hurry to dispatch troops according to the order of the Privy Council, so he asked the quartermaster to arrange Ezhou and storage along the way to make up for the supplies transported later, and then he didn't care.

"It hasn't been delivered so far?"

"Yes, so far, except for food, there is not enough other things, and it is not enough for all soldiers. We have tried our best to provide ginger soup."

The quartermaster's answer made Wu Gong very angry, so he immediately wrote an order for the rear warehouse to immediately allocate enough ginger and medicinal herbs for colds and fever to support the army.

However, it takes time from the order to get the items in place. Under the management of the bureaucrats in the Southern Song Dynasty, this time may be extended indefinitely.

Wu Gong also knew that he had to wait, so he could only let the soldiers put on the winter clothes prepared in advance to keep out the cold, in order to fight the falling temperature.

But in the next few days, the situation not only did not improve, but intensified.

A large number of soldiers caught colds and fevers because of the cold, and more and more people were sick, so that Wu Gong had to suspend the battle plan and use many barracks as temporary wounded barracks.

However, there was a shortage of military doctors in the Song army. There were only 2 military doctors in an army of more than 27 people, and they couldn't manage the vomiting.

While Wu Gong anxiously sent people back to promote ginger and medicine, he personally investigated why the soldiers were sick so many people. Could it be the plague?
No, if it was a plague, people should have died long ago, and everyone can't escape if one counts.

But why are the people living in the same military camp still alive and well?
Wu Gong was puzzled.

Until one day, when Wu Gong inspected the military camp somewhere, he saw a soldier in winter clothes mocking the other three soldiers in winter clothes for being cold and useless.

Seeing the arrogant look of the soldier, and the cowardly expressions of the other three with their heads shrunk, he had a flash of inspiration, and a stride rushed forward and tore all the winter coats on the four of them. At a glance, it suddenly dawned on me.

(End of this chapter)