In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 306 Failed to Cross the River
Defending the Yangtze River must defend the Huaihe River. This is not without purpose, but is determined by the terrain of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River. Compared with the wider Yangtze River line, the Huaihe River line is more conducive to defense.

Although the Yangtze River is wide, it twists and turns in the south of the Yangtze River, and both sides of the river are very flat. There are too many places for large armies to cross the river.

With such a terrain and the defense line being thousands of miles long, the difficulty of defense is not much better than that of the Yellow River in the Central Plains. Even if there are millions of troops defending the south bank, it will be difficult to defend to the death.

On the other hand, the Huaihe River is different. Although the river surface is not as wide as the Yangtze River, the flow of the river basically maintains a straight line from the Dabie Mountains in the west to the sea in the east. In addition, there are dense swamps and wetlands on both sides, and there is only so much space for the army to cross the river. There are several places, so it is much easier to defend than the Yangtze River.

Especially in the rainy season, it is a nightmare for the attacking troops in the north, and logistical supplies will be extremely difficult, while the south can use ships to directly transport grain, grass, weapons and reinforcements along the tributaries.

And even if the northern army breaks through the Huaihe River defense line, the southern army will only have to block it. By the time the northern army reaches the north bank of the Yangtze River after all the hard work, it will be basically exhausted, lose its vigor, and can no longer organize its troops to cross. The Yangtze River.

At this time, Chuang Wang led an army of more than 20 to deploy a defense line along the south bank of the Huaihe River. Hundreds of thousands of young men and women were busy in full swing. The focus of defense was still on Fengyang Fucheng, but in other places as long as the army could cross the river, Basically, they are heavily guarded.

In the early stage, King Chuang was preparing to cross the Yangtze River, so the ships that could be gathered were basically gathered on the south bank. After capturing Yangzhou Prefecture, he planned to take the canal to cross the river directly. This made the Chinese army not able to gather many ships on the north bank, and had to Built on site.

The two sides faced off for a full month before the Chinese army built more than 3000 crude wooden ships. The invading army of more than [-] prisoners was also well-trained and reorganized.

These more than 2 people and the more than 5 soldiers and horses of Li Yan and his wife were organized into three temporary legions, each with a total of 10 people and 5000 battalions of [-] people each.

Most of them are only equipped with simple swords, guns and shields. Not to mention armor, even the Chinese military uniforms are still being produced, so each person can only wrap a piece of yellow cloth on their head to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy, because the equipment of the opposing army is different from that of the enemy. The clothes are similar, except that the heads are wrapped in red cloth.

The commanders of the three temporary legions were Red Lady, Marco and Li Mingfu respectively. The commanders of each battalion were mostly mid-level and senior generals taken from the trapped camps under the Fourth Legion.

There is no way that compared to the veteran officers of the Lin Family Army, Ma Ke and Li Mingfu, the two former general officers of the Ming Dynasty, are better at commanding this kind of mob.

Obviously Namuzhong has also noticed that in the next battle, the infantry square formation of the Fourth Army may not have much room to display, let alone the cavalry. Most of them will have to rely on these three temporary armies to cross the river and attack. The city was fortified.

Although they have only been training for nearly a month, the morale of these 10,000+ people is obviously much higher than when they were in the army. After all, the food and treatment of the Chinese army are there, and military and political talents will be taken away from time to time. They take ideological lessons.

After entering mid-September, Namu Zhong couldn't wait. After all, although the Central Route Army had not yet captured Xiangyang, it had already taken a detour from Suizhou and invaded Huguang. The West Route Army also took a small route and invaded Sichuan. Namu Zhong Zhong Ziran didn't want her as a queen to lose to two legion commanders in the end.

The Chinese army's forces were concentrated in Huaiyuan County on the north bank of Fengyang City. Following Namu Zhong's order, the temporary army led by Li Mingfu took the lead in launching a cross-river battle. More than 2 people rowed more than 1000 small boats, and densely packed North Korea. Go to the south bank to kill.

The person in charge of the defense on the south bank was Liu Zongmin, the general of the Chuang Army. 4 horses were already ready, but they only placed a large number of horse-repelling stakes on the bank.

"Quickly, shoot an arrow for me!"

Seeing the Chinese army's boat gradually approaching, Liu Zongmin's few thousand archers began to bend their bows and set arrows, and threw a rain of arrows into the river.

Besides firing arrows, the Chuang army had no better way to prevent the Chinese boats from docking.

"Kill it..."

"Come on!"

"Brothers, kill!" As the Chinese army's boats began to dock, the soldiers on them jumped off the beach one after another. The intruders immediately rushed forward waving their weapons, trying to drive the Chinese army into the river before they could stand still. go.

At the beginning, the Chinese army was indeed killed by the rushing intruders, with heavy casualties and heavy casualties. However, as more and more boats docked, more Chinese troops jumped off the boats to join the battle, and the intruders were killed again and again and retreated. In the end, they had to retreat. Don't retreat until you reach the horse-rejecting pile to stabilize your position.

At this time, almost all the [-] Chinese troops came ashore, and for a while the two sides fought fiercely on the shore across the giant horse piles.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army was obviously higher than that of the Chuang army, it was still much smaller in number. In addition, it took time for the subsequent troops to cross the river, so it gradually began to fail.

At the same time, Red Lady and Ma Ke each carried 5 horses and [-] small wooden boats to launch a river-crossing operation somewhere upstream and downstream.

They also fought fiercely with the generals Li Guo and Liu Fangliang who were responsible for defending these two areas.

The Fourth Legion was watching the excitement from the shore.

After a three-day battle, the Chinese troops at three crossing points failed to gain a foothold on the south bank, and were eventually pushed back to the north bank. In the end, they not only lost more than 3 people, but also lost most of their ships.

During this period, Namu Zhong also sent out the firearms battalion to attack with the trapped camp. Although the enemy was once in danger of breaking into the defense line, the Chuang army also promptly dispatched elite veterans when they saw that something was not going well. Apparently King Chuang also risked his life in order to defend the Huaihe River defense line. Pressure all the old people up.

"Mr. Li, what should we do?" Seeing that after so long preparations, all three people were beaten and returned in panic, Na Muzhong was at a loss and had to consult Li Yan.

She had powerful cavalry, firearms and infantry phalanxes, but they were blocked by the river. She really didn't know how to fight this kind of cross-river battle, and it felt more difficult than a siege battle.

Li Yan actually fought this kind of river-crossing battle for the first time. At this time, he also realized that he had underestimated Chuang Wang. Although most of the Chuang army was a ragtag group, after all, they were outnumbered and well prepared, so he wanted to fight in this way. Forcibly crossing the river under the opponent's nose is not an easy task.

Unless the elites of the Fourth Army can personally seize the beach by boat and take the lead in fighting the Chuang army at close range, it may be difficult to break through the Chuang army's defense line.

Namuzhong, however, refused without even thinking.

"No, there are strict regulations in the army. Infantry battalions must maintain strict formation and discipline at all times on the battlefield. They must not be used separately. Chaos and melee are also prohibited, so at most the trapping camp and the firearms battalion are deployed."

"In this case, we can only go around and attack somewhere else."

Li Yan also didn't expect that the infantry battalion of the Chinese Army had such a rule. Seeing Na Mu Zhong's resolute attitude, he had no choice but to say.

In the next period of time, the Chinese army built more ships while looking for opportunities to sneak attacks and cross over. However, the Chuang army was too tightly defended and under their noses. Every move of both sides could not be concealed from the other side, so the Chinese army never Can succeed.

In the end, Li Yan could only suggest building more wooden boats honestly, and at the same time let the Red Lady lead [-] troops to detour to Huai'an Prefecture downstream to rush for the ferry.

Because the Ming army was responsible for the defense of Huai'an Prefecture, after inquiring, Li Yan found that the Ming army's defense, in terms of strength and tightness, could not compare with the Chuang army.

(End of this chapter)