Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 145 Battle at Bali Bridge (2)

Just as Shen Chen and Ren Jun were fighting fiercely at the Bali Bridge, everyone around Xudu was alarmed.

Cao Cao didn't know the news yet. He was on the front line at Guandu, which was [-] kilometers away from Xudu. Unless the scout cavalry sent by Xun Yu drove sports cars, it would be impossible to deliver the news so quickly.

But Han Hao, Xia Houyuan, Li Dian, Cai Yang and others already knew about it.

Han Hao is in Yanling, which is [-] kilometers away from Xudu.

Xiahouyuan and the others were in Liqiang, more than 30 kilometers away from Xudu.

Judging from the timeline, Shen Chen set off from Yingyang in the morning and arrived in Yingyin at noon. The team rested for a while, killed Zaozhi around one o'clock in the afternoon, and rested in the city.

Then set off again at two o'clock, and arrived at Bali Bridge around five o'clock, near six o'clock, began to line up and attack Ren Jun.

That is to say, Zaozhi sent people flying horses to report the letter to Xun Yu in Xudu at about one o'clock in the noon. Xun Yu received the letter at two o'clock, and then sent people to Yanling, which was 30 kilometers away, and Li, which was more than [-] kilometers away. Call for reinforcements.

However, if you go to Yanling and Liqiang, even if the horses go at full speed, it will take between one hour and one and a half hours respectively.

So based on the time calculation, basically it didn't take long before Shen Chen's army set off, that is, around three o'clock in the afternoon, Han Hao had already received the news, and immediately summoned troops to start rescue.

Xiahouyuan and the others were a little further away, almost when Shen Chenjun was about to arrive at the Bali Bridge, probably after four o'clock, Xiahouyuan and the others knew about it.

But they can get the news that the scouts are galloping at full speed on horseback. If they are pawns, at four or five kilometers per hour, it will take four or five hours for Han Hao to come here, and six or seven hours for Xia Houyuan and the others to come here, basically at night. .

Even this is the most ideal state.

For example, when Han Hao was in Yanling, the Diannong army was also scattered, and it took time to summon temporarily and bring weapons and equipment. If there is such a delay, it may take another six or seven hours to come.

It was even worse for Xia Houyuan, who was confronting Liu Bei's main force. If Liu Bei delayed a little, he might not even be able to come tomorrow morning.

Therefore, to a certain extent, Xu Du's safety at this time really depends on how long Ren Jun can last.

Once he was breached by Shen Chen before dusk, Shen Chen would have at least seven or eight hours to do whatever he wanted in Xudu.

But now, the entire Xudu has almost no troops.

But let's not talk about how Yanling's Han Hao immediately summoned the Diannong Army to rescue Xudu after he got the news.

Just talking about Luiqiang County at this time, the battle has reached a fever pitch.

According to the agreement, Liu Bei began to attack the city two days after parting with Shen Chen. Today is the third day. Since the early morning, his army has marched out of the camp. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Tai Shi Ci and other leaders , Surrounded Liqiang in three ways.

The source of his soldiers and horses is very complicated, a small part is the elite soldiers given by Yuan Shao, about 3000 people.The other part is the remnants of the Yuan family recruited in Yuzhou, about seven or eight thousand.

Then, when Man Chong was defending the city, all five hundred elite troops died in battle, and more than 2000 miscellaneous troops surrendered.

Finally, Li Tong's [-] surrendered troops.

Although it was a mob, it couldn't stand the crowd.Along the way, some remnants of Yuan Shao came to vote, and now the total force is close to 8000.

On the other hand, Xia Houyuan and Li Dian had very few people, Xia Houyuan only had three thousand and Li Dian only two thousand.

Even counting Cai Yang's 3000 men later, the total force was no more than [-].

Therefore, Xia Houyuan and Li Dian have been guarding the city for the past few days, while Cai Yang came from the north and was transferred from the front line of Guandu by Cao Cao to defend Liu Bei's troops.At that time, he did not enter the city, so he was stationed on the north bank of Yingshui and the south bank of Yingshui, at the confluence of two rivers.

The south bank of Yingshui is Liqiang County. In the early years, Cao Hong defeated a group of rebel leaders here.

Cai Yang, Xia Houyuan, Li Dian and others stood guard across the river, each other's horns. To some extent, this was also a way out.

Liu Bei's main army besieged Luiqiang County in groups. Only because the north was a Yingshui river, the river was wide and the water flow was fast, it was not suitable for attacking, so there was no encirclement.

Over the past few days, Cao Jun has successively transported a lot of grain and grass into the city from the North Gate, apparently intending to fight a war of attrition with Liu Bei.

After all, Liu Bei only brought two or 3000 troops to the south alone. His source of food and grass was actually supported by the remnants of Yuan Shao in Runan. These remnants of Yuan Shao were defeated by Man Chong, and there was not much food left. Now Liu Bei has 8000 troops. Grain can't last long.

But they never expected that Liu Bei didn't even plan to build more siege equipment or rest for two more days, but launched a strong attack on the second day after arriving at Liqiang.

Under the siege of the city on three sides, under the supervision of Liu Guanzhang, Zhao Taishi and others, Liu Bei's army attacked the city head like ants several times, but because the soldiers were not strong enough and not brave enough, they were easily repelled several times.

In the afternoon, Liu Bei saw that the soldiers under his command were quite afraid of fighting, and they dared not brave the rolling stones and trees to charge towards the city wall.

Soon Liu Bei's army receded like a tide, leaving hundreds of corpses at the gates of the city, and hurriedly evacuated.

Even because of the low quality of their soldiers, they were in a mess when they retreated, as if they had been defeated. They left the ladder and started running back almost without formation.

What they knew was that they were withdrawing their troops, but those who didn't know thought they were being hunted down.

If it were Zhang Liao, it would be eight hundred high and low. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Tai Shici are all there, so they can't be killed.

It was late afternoon, almost five o'clock in the afternoon.

Xia Houyuan stood on the top of the city of Liqiang, panting and looking at Liu Beijun who retreated outside the city, and said angrily: "Damn it, that Liu Daer is really disgusting, I really want to kill him and his third brother .”

"The general has a grudge against Zhang Fei?"

Li Dian also came over and asked curiously.

Xia Houyuan seemed unwilling to mention the fact that his niece Xia Houjuan was taken away by Zhang Fei at the beginning of this year, but said: "These two thieves have repeatedly ignored Sikong's kindness, and I wish I could kill them sooner rather than later."

"They have quite a lot of troops."

Li Dian licked his tongue: "However, their morale and fighting spirit are not strong. If they can attack at night, they may be able to defeat Liu Bei."

Xia Houyuan pondered for a while, nodded and said: "Well, maybe he has something to do, but he will definitely be very vigilant a few days ago, we will stick to it for a few days, and find a suitable time to attack Liu Bei's camp at night. That Zhang Yide."

General Miaocai seems to have a lot of resentment towards Zhang Yide.

Li Dian thought.

But he is not a talkative person, so he didn't continue to ask.

And just as Xia Houyuan and Li Dian took a rest and prepared to arrange soldiers for today's city defense work, suddenly someone hurried up the city wall and shouted: "General, something is wrong."

The surrounding soldiers were back and forth, some were resting, some were patrolling, and some were carrying supplies for tomorrow's battle. When they heard the sound, they all looked over and saw that it was a scout who was very tired. Covered in sweat, he crawled to the top of the city.

Li Dian frowned, and the big guys repelled Liu Bei's army. At this time, something happened, and the army's morale was so unstable.

But obviously this is only the case with the big things.

Could it be that Xu Du was attacked?
This thought suddenly came to him in his mind, and then he saw Xia Houyuan had walked over and dragged the scout over like a dead dog, slapped his ears hard twice and shouted: "What nonsense, what happened?"

The scout galloped all the way from Xudu. After more than 30 kilometers, both men and horses were half dead from exhaustion.

"what?"

Xia Houyuan turned pale with shock, and hurriedly asked: "How many people are here?"

"It is said to be three to 4000 people."

"When did Yingyin get broken?"

"Afternoon."

The scouts spurted blood from their noses.

"Blow the horn!"

Xia Houyuan didn't feel sorry for the soldier, but threw him on the ground, and immediately ordered people to blow horns to gather all the troops to help Xudu.

Li Dian hurried up and said: "General, if we go out of the city, it will be even more dangerous for Liu Bei's army to go north, so we must not send a large number of troops back, only a small group of troops."

"A small group of people?"

Xia Houyuan calmed down, thought for a while, and immediately said to the left and right: "Go, order Cai Yang, let him go north to Xudu overnight, and defend Xudu thoroughly."

"only!"

Left and right immediately go out of the city to report.

Cai Yang was on the other side of the Yingshui River. Liu Bei lacked boats and tools to cross the river, and the bridge was north of the city, so his position was very safe.

Hearing the news of Xudu now, Xia Houyuan asked him to go to Xudu to rescue immediately, Cai Yang set off immediately, before he even had time to clean up the camp, he immediately assembled the whole army and rushed northward at a rapid pace.

In the evening, near dusk, Han Hao was only more than ten kilometers away from Xudu, and Cai Yang was still more than 20 kilometers away.

And Shen Chen's Huangmenting army broke through the second wall and was almost exhausted.

He also didn't expect Ren Jun to be so difficult to deal with. A general who was only a flash in the pan in history, and he was still leading the second and third line troops, he didn't expect to be able to persist for so long.

Every time Shen Chen was about to break through the last fortress of the camp, he would shoot back with a bow and crossbow, and then personally launch a counterattack.

The casualty ratio of the two sides reached 100 to [-], which means that the current casualties of Shen Chen's army are about [-] people, while Ren Jun's army has only more than [-] casualties.

Although it seemed wrong, because Shen Chen had more than 3000 people beating up 5000 people, normally it was Ren Jun who defeated Shen Chen.

But the problem is that these 5000 people do not have bows and crossbows, and they are still second- and third-line troops with poor military quality.

You must know that the strength of Shen Chen's army is about 200, and there are 700 crossbowmen in the team, with more than 1 arrows, which can almost crush Ren Jun.

But taking advantage of the favorable location of the wall, Ren Jun persevered hard. It took nearly two hours from dusk to dusk until Shen Chen broke through the two walls and blocked Ren Jun in the last fortress.

At this time, both Gan Ning and Shen Chen were injured, and the leather chain mail on their bodies was drenched with sweat. Due to the lack of water and salt supply in a short period of time, everyone's lips were slightly pale, and the soldiers gathered around Together, there are dead bodies all around.

Ren Jun is standing behind the high wall, his current situation is not good, he did not personally participate in the previous two rounds, but this time he had to fight the enemy, and was even almost beheaded by Gan Ning, if not for the rescue of his bodyguards with bows and crossbows, I'm afraid it's dead.

What's more, he doesn't have many arrows anymore. Originally, the function of arrows is to kill enemies in a wide range. The hit rate of a single shot is limited by the moving target on the battlefield and the influence of wind. It is easy to miss and cause empty shots. Coupled with the stalemate on the battlefield, the two sides are entangled together, and the hit rate is even lower.

Therefore, every time Ren Jun saw that the gate of the camp was about to fall after his own soldiers were hacked, he first used bows and crossbows to force the opponents to retreat, and then let the soldiers fill up again, and only then barely repelled them.

Now that this situation has happened many times, the crossbow is almost exhausted.It is estimated that there will be another wave at the end, and all their stored crossbow arrows will be used up, which means they will run out of ammunition and food.

Therefore, Ren Jun's mood sank to the bottom at this time.

But what he didn't know was that because he didn't expect Ren Jun to be unexpectedly difficult, Shen Chenjun's side was also at the end of their battle.

For an army, physical strength is very important, but willpower is even more important.

If there were all Huangmenting soldiers here, they might still be able to fight, but half of them are Gan Ning's army.

These soldiers were inferior to Huangmenting soldiers in terms of physical strength and willpower. In addition to the lack of training, they were the ones who suffered the most casualties, so the morale and physical strength of the army fell to the bottom.

Shen Chen looked around. After fighting fiercely for more than an hour, the faces of the soldiers were covered with exhaustion, blood and sweat soaked their clothes. The road to attack Xudu was more difficult than imagined.

hateful!

Seeing this situation, Shen Chen also felt powerless in his heart. He could guess that it was not that easy to attack Xu, but who would have thought that it was already a short distance away from Xudu, but it was still insurmountable.

Gan Ning was also wet all over, his lips were slightly pale, and he said beside Shen Chen, "Ah Chen, I'm afraid the soldiers."

"Let's go one last time."

Shen Chen smiled wryly and said: "At first, I thought that this Ren Jun should not be such a powerful person. We can enter Xudu, welcome the emperor back to Nanyang, and let Cao Cao and Yuan Shao be dog-eat-dog in the north. Now it seems that I am indeed whimsical. Just this Ren Jun is not of Yi Yu's generation."

No wonder they were able to protect Cao Cao's food and defeat Yuan Shao's cavalry at the same time. If there is no three-thirds, how dare they go to Liangshan.This Ren Jun's status is still higher than Han Hao and Zaoyi's, which obviously shows that he has real skills, but he died too early in history.

"Okay, let's go one last time!"

Gan Ning also got angry, spat in the palm of his hand as washing his hands, and wiped off the blood and sweat on his body to prevent the handle from slipping. He didn't know how many enemies he had hacked to death with his ring-headed knife, and it was almost covered with blood. Soaked.

"kill!"

Following the sound of spring thunder, Cao Jun heard boom, boom, boom, a series of dense and urgent trembling sounds of bow strings and crossbow arms, and dozens of arrows and crossbows smashed over their heads and faces.

It was the old routine again, first suppressing Cao Jun on the wall with bows and crossbows, and then the infantry took advantage of the situation to hide and kill under the wall, and began to attack head-on.

Cao Jun almost instinctively squatted down and climbed on the cloud platform to avoid the baptism of the arrows.

Immediately afterwards, Shen Chen's army sounded the bone whistle for attack. Before they rushed to kill, they would shout and shout to cover up their attack, but now they didn't even have the strength to shout, and their running speed was quite a bit slower.

Fortunately, the distance between the two sides was only 20 steps, and they reached the wall in an instant, and Hulala began to build a ladder to rush towards the wall.

They have rushed to the past twice before, so they have experience.

At this time, Ren Jun raised his head and looked at the sky. It was about to get dark, so he shouted: "Shoot the arrow!"

The remaining one or two hundred arrows were shot in just two rounds, killing and wounding more than a dozen Shen Chen soldiers, and then the archers threw down their bows and crossbows one after another, drew their knives and hacked, and poked with their guns.

The two sides fought fiercely around the wall again, and the roars, echoes, weapons blocking, and howling and humming on the top of the wall almost never stopped.

From the time of daybreak to now approaching three o'clock in the evening, a full hour and a half, that is, three hours, the front of Ren Jun's camp was being tested at any time, and there was no end to the tragic fight.

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

Iron helmets and flip-leather hats can be seen everywhere on the wall, and feathered arrows with bald tails and broken weapons are thrown all over the place.

In the corners on both sides of the wall, the corpses of the soldiers who died in the battle were stacked randomly. Some corpses were kicked and trampled under the feet of the people before they had time to carry them.

The gate of the village changed hands several times, and every time Shen Chen and Gan Ning went in, they were snatched back by Ren Jun himself.

The two sides had put all their troops together, even the crossbowmen of Shen Chen's army dropped their crossbows, pulled out the ring swords around their waists and joined the battlefield. Obviously, everyone knew that this was a moment of life and death.

In the end, with a bang, the gate of the village collapsed, and Cao Jun fought and retreated. The three walls of the camp were all outside, and inside were tent camps and warehouses.

Ren Jun obviously did not intend to surrender, but continued to use the tents and supply warehouses in the camp for defense.

The sky dimmed, and the sun set.

After three quarters of the twilight, the world finally seemed to have turned from darkness to darkness.

But immediately after Cao Jun's tent ignited a big fire, Shen Chenjun brought a scythe with him, and just used the enemy's internal camp to burn for lighting night battles.

At the end of the evening, that is, around nine o'clock in the evening, Ren Jun retreated to the east gate of the wall with more than [-] remnants.

Shen Chen attacked the east from the west, which means that the place where he attacked first was the west gate of the wall.Now Ren Jun has almost no way out, and the fall of the last gate will completely announce the fall of Xu Du.

And when seeing Ren Jun struggling to support, the army was about to collapse.

"woo woo woo woo!"

The loud horn sound suddenly came from the north.

It took five hours for Han Hao's reinforcements to finally arrive at the battlefield!
(End of this chapter)