Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1340: Across Wuxing

At dawn, a burst of hurried horse hooves sounds suddenly rang out in the wilderness, instantly breaking the tranquil environment.

"What happened? Why are there horse hooves making noises?"

The sleeping soldiers in the camp were suddenly awakened, grabbed the swords beside their beds, and asked in a vigilant voice, "Could it be that the Tang army is attacking?"

Some people were brave enough to ignore it. When they opened their eyes and saw that it was still early, they turned over and went back to sleep, muttering, "Why are you panicking? King Linchuan led his elite troops to attack the camp at night. I think they are back victorious. Even if the Tang army is really here, they have strong horses to travel with, and we can't escape. It's better to stay in the camp and avoid being shot by stray arrows."

However, those who were so emotionally stable were still a minority. Most people were terrified when they heard the increasingly rapid sound of horse hooves approaching quickly. Many of them could not help but put on their robes and rushed out of the tents, wanting to find out what was going on.

At the same time, the sound of urgent warning gongs and drums was heard in the camp, and the commanders of each camp began to call on the soldiers to quickly form a battle array to meet the enemy. However, not many soldiers were willing to respond, and most of them were still running around in panic in vain.

Not long after, a cavalry team appeared on the outskirts of the camp, but they were blocked by fortifications such as chevaux de frise and trenches outside and did not rush forward directly.

It was still dark, so the light was not bright enough for the soldiers to see the specific situation of the cavalry, but judging from their formation and running rhythm, they did not look like the divisions and brigades of Wuzhong. There were not many horses in Jiangdong, and the limited horses were mainly Shu horses and Dian horses, which were not much bigger than donkeys and did not run very fast. The war horses outside the camp were obviously not like this.

"The Tang army is coming! The Tang army is coming! Quickly, quickly report to King Linchuan, and fight back the enemy!"

Since Chen Qian had just led his troops away last night, and in order to avoid causing too much panic and chaos among them, he did not tell the soldiers outside the palace his real whereabouts. He only said that he would lead the elite troops to attack the invading Tang army. Therefore, after the soldiers outside the palace confirmed that it was the Tang army that was attacking, their first reaction was to report to King Linchuan, hoping that the elite troops in the king's palace could lead them to fight the enemy together.

However, when these soldiers actually walked out of their own camps, they found that the entire camp had become somewhat empty and deserted. Especially the closer they got to the Linchuan Palace, the more deserted the camps became, with almost no soldiers walking around.

Such a strange situation naturally made people feel uneasy, so some soldiers bravely rushed into the camps to search, and soon found that there was no one between the tents. They became more and more panicked: "Why is there no one in the camp? Where did everyone go?"

"Could it be that he has gone out to attack the enemy camp and has not returned yet?"

Someone else speculated that when the King of Linchuan led his troops to attack last night, the camp did make some arrangements for the soldiers to come in and out. The situation was chaotic at the time, and these ordinary soldiers were strictly prohibited from leaving the camp. They were secretly glad that they did not receive the order to mobilize, and they went to rest early, but they did not know much about what happened later.

These people certainly had no idea what exactly had happened. After Chen Qian led his troops to evacuate, Shen Ke and others who stayed behind that night dispersed the soldiers gathered in the camp outside the palace in batches.

  Those who were allowed to leave the camp first were mainly the subordinates of the generals and the disciples of some powerful people in Wuzhong. These people were able to leave first to avoid the enemy's attack. As for the soldiers who were still left in the camps outside the palace, it was too late to disband them. At the same time, they were needed to stay to attract some of the enemy's offensive, so no one informed these soldiers that the main force had evacuated!

Now that the Tang army's light cavalry had already reached the vicinity of the palace, these people were immediately alarmed, but it was too late by now.

They stumbled out of the empty camps, and then rushed to the Linchuan Palace again with confusion and puzzlement. But when they arrived at the palace, they only saw some ordinary slaves and servants, and the Linchuan King and his confidants had disappeared long ago.

"Did the king abandon his people and run away?"

Someone was walking hastily in the empty palace, asking in a trembling voice with a look of panic on his face.

"How could it be? Impossible, absolutely impossible! Your Majesty is determined to protect your country, how could he abandon his people and run away! You bastard, you are frightened yourself, don't slander the king!"

After hearing this, someone shouted angrily: "Don't you know that the elite soldiers of the palace went out to attack the camp last night?"

But even if the troops that went out to attack the enemy had not returned yet, the Tang army had already arrived, which showed that those who went out to attack the enemy were already in great danger. Moreover, even if they went out to attack the enemy, how come even the clerks in the mansion disappeared?

"You thieves, do you know where the King of Linchuan and the officials in his palace have gone?"

Some frightened and irritable soldiers directly captured and controlled the remaining slaves in the mansion, and then glared at them and shouted at them.

"I, I really don't know, but I saw that Shen Changshi led his troops to the southeast before dawn, and left a message saying that he would return home to summon his men to fight the enemy..."

Naturally, those servants had no idea about the thoughts and intentions of the nobles in the mansion. When they were interrogated at this moment, they could only cautiously tell some of the situations they had overheard with trembling hands.

Before the truth of the matter could be forced out from the palace, the roars of horses and men outside the palace had already become louder.

Although a large number of defenses were built outside the camp, these defenses also required manpower cooperation to be effective in blocking the enemy. However, the soldiers who remained in the camps all ran into the palace. Those defenses were unguarded. After wandering around and watching for a while, the Tang army cavalry naturally found a breakthrough quickly and rushed in directly from the gaps in those defenses.

“The Tang army passed through Wuxing and went south to attack the bandits in Kuaiji. This was not to disturb the people of Wuzhong. You, the people of Wuzhong, should quickly lay down your weapons to avoid death!” At this time, there were still thousands of soldiers running around in and out of the palace, while the Tang cavalry that arrived here had only a few hundred men. The gap between the two was too great. In addition, the Tang army commander also noticed that these people of Wuzhong looked panic-stricken and had no intention of forming a battle line to resist. So he ordered his men to call on them to surrender.

These Wuzhong folks have been gathering near the Linchuan Palace for some time. It is known that they hold a rather resistant and hostile attitude towards the invasion of the Tang army. The main purpose of gathering here is to fight against the Tang army. Although the current situation has changed somewhat beyond their expectations, they naturally cannot be easily persuaded to surrender.

Some soldiers even tried to swing their swords to fight back when they saw the Tang cavalry approaching. However, they were completely disorganized, and their sporadic counterattacks were not enough to cause effective damage to the Tang cavalry. Instead, they were shot and killed by the Tang cavalry because of their stubborn attitude.

The Tang army was well-armed. Each of these knights was equipped with light armor, bows and swords, and their adaptability and combat effectiveness were very impressive. Although the number of both sides was very different, when they launched a counterattack, the soldiers of the Wuzhong camp were unable to resist, and soon many soldiers were shot dead on the spot.

Although there were quite a few soldiers left in the camp, most of them were ordinary villagers. They were neither part of the original county army nor the direct descendants of powerful forces. Many of their equipment were even self-provided. They were naturally incomparable with the Tang army's weapons. As the Tang army began guerrilla warfare and shooting, the number of casualties increased rapidly, and soon reached more than a hundred people.

"Quickly retreat into the palace and defend it inside!"

Seeing how powerful the Tang army was, the soldiers in the Wu camp panicked and rushed into the palace. The scene became more and more chaotic. Even though some commanders wanted to organize their troops to fight back, they were unable to do so under the impact of the chaotic crowd and could only retreat into the palace.

After seeing this, the Tang army soldiers outside the palace stopped attacking and instead rode their horses around outside the palace, trying their best to drive back the fleeing villagers and drive them into the palace.

Although this palace is quite magnificent, it is just a mansion and cannot be considered a solid city. These soldiers can retreat into it and gain temporary safety, but when the Tang army arrives here, they will be trapped.

The camps outside the palace were relatively scattered and were not built for purely military purposes. The villagers who gathered here were usually from the same hometown or attached to a famous tyrant. However, those tyrants had already learned about the main force's withdrawal, and immediately led their own troops to quietly leave, leaving the other villagers behind.

These villagers have been gathering near the palace for days, and the channels for obtaining information are relatively closed, otherwise they would not be abandoned here directly. Although they have been abandoned now, the obsession of resisting the Tang army that has been instilled in their hearts for a long time has not been reversed for a while.

And it was precisely because of this obsession that they refused to leave even though the situation had changed drastically. In addition, due to the expulsion of the Tang army's cavalry, most of the thousands of Wuzhong villagers in the surrounding area were driven into the palace.

At the same time, the Tang army in the rear also learned that something had happened in the base camp of Wuxing Township, so the Tang army troops that had been scattered to attack various places quickly surrounded and encircled the Linchuan Palace.

After breaking through the Songjiang line, the Tang army advanced together and carried out sweeps separately, using light cavalry scouts to communicate with different units. As their battle circle gradually shrank, some personnel changes became increasingly clearly perceived.

The dispersed main forces of the Linchuan Palace had just evacuated in batches last night, and most of them were marching on foot and carriages. It was only a few hours from night to dawn, and quite a few of them had not gone far. Moreover, because these troops came from all over Wuzhong, they hurried back home this time, and some simply threw themselves into the area controlled by the Tang army, and were immediately surrounded and intercepted.

"Chen Qian has actually deserted us? This disciple was stubborn and clamorous a few days ago, but I didn't expect him to be so skilled in the art of evasion!"

Ruoyu Feng, who had already led his troops to Wucheng, the capital of Wuxing County, was surprised to learn that Chen Qian had escaped first, and said with a frown.

The Tang army had been crossing the river for a long time, and they had a good grasp of the human relations and situation in Wuxing. Chen Qian had always expressed his hostility towards the Tang army coming south with a firm attitude, and the defense line arrangements in Songjiang and other places were also his work.

Therefore, Ruo Ruofeng also secretly estimated that he would inevitably have to fight a fierce battle with them when he entered Wuxing. Therefore, after entering Wuxing, he immediately dispatched divisions to eliminate some strongholds around Changcheng County that might reinforce Changcheng County, and then prepared to concentrate his forces to attack the Linchuan Palace in this area, and try his best to eliminate the anti-Tang forces in Wuxing north of the Qiantang River.

However, he did not expect Chen Qian to be so clever. He evacuated the Great Wall before the Tang army formed a siege on Changcheng County. His so-called vow to defend the ancestral tombs at the Great Wall all became empty words.

Although Chen Qian had already left Wuxing, after learning that many Wuzhong followers were still left in the Linchuan Palace, Ruo Ruofeng led several thousand troops from Wucheng straight to Changcheng County. At the same time, he dispatched Yuwen Xin to lead two thousand elite cavalry to chase in the direction of Chen Qian's retreat. It would be best if they could intercept and capture Chen Qian and his party on the north bank of the Qiantang River.

Yuwen Xin and his entourage were originally conducting an attack near Jiaxing. After receiving the news, they immediately gathered their troops and headed straight for Yuhang, a big city north of Qiantang River, along the Baichi Du Grand Canal in Wuxing.

However, they did not have a good understanding of the geographical conditions of Wuzhong. They thought that it would be very easy to cross the Baichi Du river as it was the dry season. However, they did not expect that the ditch connecting the lower end of the canal to the Qiantang River had silted up, and the flooded mudflats were dozens of feet wide. It was also the cold season of late winter and early spring, so it was impossible to wade across the river. They could only go back dozens of miles upstream and find a suitable place to cross the river near Longxi in Wukang.

After all these twists and turns, it was difficult for Yuwen Xin and his party to intercept Chen Qian and his party on the north bank of Qiantang River. However, they did gain something else by rushing in here. They happened to arrive at Longxi Bay, one of the settlements of the Shen family in Wuxing.

Shen Ke, the governor of Zhenzhou, was from Longxi, Wukang. After evacuating from the Linchuan Palace, he led more than 3,000 villagers back to Wukang, preparing to intercept the Tang army coming from the south in the north of Qiantang River, relying on the terrain of Longxi Bay and the manor fortress that he had run in his hometown for many years.

However, when he was still calling on his tribesmen to repair the walls of the manor, he did not expect that a Tang cavalry force of several thousand people came out from behind to attack him. Under the attack of this Tang army, Shen Ke's tribesmen who responded hastily were quickly defeated, the manor was also breached, and thousands of tribesmen, including Shen Ke himself, were captured on the spot!