Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 244

"kill!!"

War cries resounded throughout the battlefield. The infantrymen of the Yan army on the left and right wings had been waiting for their commander to issue an order, but no order was conveyed. Therefore, they could only watch as their highness led the cavalry into the formation that was multiple times their own and fought.

Under the protection of Qiu Fu, Zhu Neng, Huo Zhen, Ma He, Wang Yan and others, Zhu Di Shang was able to hold a short bow on horseback and shoot left and right, hitting many Confederate cavalry in the cheek, causing the opponent to fall down on the battlefield.

But such calmness dissipated with a roar from the front.

"Yan Shuren!!"

Ping An, who was sitting on the back of a big food horse, was holding a three-foot-long horse spear, and led a cavalry with a clear goal to rush towards Zhu Di.

"Ping Bao'er! Have you forgotten His Highness's kindness to you?"

"I will never forget Emperor Taizu Gao's kindness to me. Yan Ni will die!!"

Qiu Fu yelled and scolded, but Ping An pushed him back.

The distance between the two sides was only more than ten steps, and they collided in an instant.

Qiu Fu, Huo Zhen, Ma He, Wang Yan and others tried to intercept, but were attacked by Ping An with his horse swing, causing the horses to become unstable.

Before they could recover, Ping An had already gone straight to Zhu Di.

"Yan Shuren!!"

The Ping An war roar stabbed the horse, and the scalps of the generals were numb. Everyone tried to rescue Zhu Di. Even Zhu Di himself felt that time had slowed down, and he watched the horse almost stab him to the ground.

"Ping Bao'er, don't be so arrogant!"

At the critical moment, Zhu Neng, who had been covering Zhu Di's back, took action, thrust out his spear, and tried to swing the horse from Ping An's hand.

It's just that his strength was much smaller than Ping An's, and he couldn't shake the horse stick in Ping An's hand. Fortunately, Zhu Di lay down and let the horse stick stab the air.

Seeing this scene, everyone was finally relieved of their nervousness, but Zhu Di was not completely safe.

Ping An drew his sword and tried to chop Zhu Di's horse, trying to make him fall under the hooves of the army's horses.

"Your Highness, leave quickly!"

At the critical moment, Qiu Fu turned back first and blocked Zhu Di's fatal blow with his spear.

In one encounter, Zhu Di almost died under Ping An's horse.

But even so, Zhu Di did not leave. Instead, he shouted: "Ping Baoer, have you forgotten that I will lead you to fight hand in hand?"

"Absurd!" Ping'an didn't bother to answer. Seeing that he was about to be surrounded by the Yan army, he quickly led more than a hundred cavalry from his headquarters to stand out from the formation.

The two sides once again exchanged a charge, but the Yan army was obviously at a disadvantage and was suppressed.

"Your Highness, please retreat to the infantry formation first."

After the confrontation, when the Yan army turned around, Zhu Neng and others tried to dissuade Zhu Di, but Zhu Di snorted coldly: "If the second son of my family is here, how can I allow him to be so rampant?"

After saying something to vent his anger, Zhu Di reassured everyone: "Don't worry, Ping Bao'er has been surrounded by our army without knowing it. Tan Yuan will appear soon. Let's fight him again to expose his rear." In the south, we can launch a full army siege."

After Zhu Di finished speaking, he immediately took the lead and led the Yan army to charge again.

"Qian Shi was so brave that he almost stabbed a common man of Yan off his horse."

"The scene just now made the general and others excited when they saw it."

"The general is brave..."

Seeing Yan Jun launch a charge, Yang Song, Pan Zhong and others also admired Ping An.

They all saw clearly the scene where Ping'an single-handedly defeated five generals of the Yan army and almost stabbed Zhu Di to death, and their morale suddenly increased.

Ping An, who was being boasted by everyone, was also carried away when he saw this. Seeing that the Yan army dared to charge, Ping An snorted coldly: "You still dare to come, this time I will stab the common people of Yan under the horse!"

He urged his horse forward and led the elite cavalry of the Confederate Army, which still had more than 8,000 cavalry, out into battle again.

This scene made the Yan army feel anxious. After all, it was an indisputable fact that the Confederate cavalry had just pushed into their own territory. If the Confederate cavalry made another contribution this time, even if they could win this battle, what would they do without Zhu Di? how.

"Your Highness has made the same mistake again..."

In the left-wing corps, Zhang Yu frowned, with a worried look on his face, obviously very worried about Zhu Di.

Zhu Di liked to rush into battle for more than a day or two. When he rushed to help Jilin City, he took the lead and rushed into battle. Zhang Yu even persuaded him about this, but he still did not change his temper.

It would be fine to say that Zhu Di is as brave as Zhu Gaoxu and Ping An, but he only has some courage and cannot reach the level of Ping An and Zhu Gaoxu, so people can't help but worry.

"kill!!"

In this confrontation, Zhu Di was smarter this time and stayed farther away from Dahu. Therefore, after the charge, Ping An could not find any trace of him.

But even so, the Southern Army's cavalry also severely damaged the Yan Army's cavalry, and the number of Yan Army's cavalry was decreasing to the extent visible to the naked eye.

Such a situation made the Yan Army infantry regiments on the left and right wings unable to stand any longer. Many commanders and Qianhu officials requested a fight, but Zhang Xin and Zhang Yu refused.

They were all waiting for an opportunity, and this opportunity finally came.

"kill!!"

Suddenly, when the Southern Army turned their horses and prepared to continue attacking the Yan Army cavalry from south to north, there was a cry of killing behind them.

Suddenly, a city wall formation composed of nearly a thousand people came from behind and shouted: "Ping Bao'er, the Yueyang Bridge has been captured by our army, why don't you just surrender!!"

"Don't panic, we can break out at any time!"

Ping An tried to stabilize the army, but when he looked forward, he realized that Zhang Yu and Zhang Xin had somehow blocked the gap exposed by Zhu Di's cavalry in front.

At the moment, they were completely trapped in the north of Yueyang Bridge, and their maneuvering space was unknowingly suppressed by Zhang Yu and Zhang Xin from three miles south of Xiong County to five miles away.

"The time has come, strangle Pingbao'er!!"

Zhu Di suffered a lot of grievances, and now he could finally be released. He immediately took out the cannon and fired it into the sky.

Amidst the "crackling" explosions, the infantry regiments on the left and right flanks began to form formations, pressing forward step by step with long spears.

Although there is still three or four miles of maneuver space, the cavalry will obviously have to pay a huge price in casualties if they want to attack the infantry's spear formation head-on.

Fortunately, Ping An was not like Yang Song and Pan Zhong who only had Mang Jin. After scanning around, he found that Zhang Xin's troops in the west were smaller in number, so he immediately decided to break out to the west.

"Follow my big banner, I will lead you to break out!"

Ping An gave the order and after one word of transmission, all the ministries responded one after another.

In just one hour, the Yan Army compressed the encirclement even smaller, and there were still Yan Army cavalry peeping at them.

"rush!"

Knowing that the casualties were huge, in order to fight for a glimmer of hope, Ping An still led more than 8,000 cavalry to launch a breakout towards Zhang Xin's regiment in the west.

"This is the moment I've been waiting for!"

Seeing Ping An's team trying to break through and their formation being stretched, Zhu Di's eyes were bright and he immediately led his cavalry to charge towards the Confederate cavalry.

The distance of a hundred steps was crossed in an instant. The southern cavalry was intercepted by Zhu Di's troops. Only the three thousand cavalry led by Ping An successfully charged towards Zhang Xin. The Chinese and rear troops led by Yang Song and Pan Zhong The army and more than 5,000 cavalry were intercepted.

Seeing the opportunity arise, the spearmen led by Tan Yuan immediately charged against the five thousand blocked cavalry of Yang Song and Pan Zhong.

In the chaos, Yang Song and Pan Zhong had difficulty controlling the army, and the Southern army's formation fell into chaos.

The soldiers did not care about killing the advancing Yan army, but also had to deal with attacks from the rear. Their morale had been greatly tested.

"Ping Bao'er! Where are you going!!"

Zhu Di laughed happily. Seeing that thousands of cavalry were entangled, he immediately led more than a hundred cavalry around him to rush towards the Ping An rear army.

For a time, before Ping An's cavalry hit Zhang Xin's regiment, they were attacked from the rear by Zhu Di's hundreds of cavalry.

"Follow me and charge, their formation is not strict, there is a chance!"

Seeing that Zhang Xin's regiment only had seven or eight spearmen, his confidence in safety increased greatly.

However, under his watch, Zhang Xin personally led his own cavalry and infantry to join them where they wanted to break out.

The distance between the two sides was less than fifty steps, but the seven or eight-layer spearmen suddenly increased to more than ten layers.

"kill!!"

With no way to retreat, Ping An could only lead three thousand Confederate cavalry with wolves in front and tigers in the back to break through the encirclement.

The spearman under Zhang Xin pressed the end of his spear against the solid ground and submerged it into it.

Zhangsan's spears were arrayed in front of him, but the horses didn't dare to charge at all.

They wanted to stop, but were squeezed by the cavalry from behind and ran into the spear formation.

For a time, the cavalry suffered numerous casualties, but not even half of the spear formation was destroyed.

The undamaged spear formation pressed forward step by step and defeated the three thousand cavalry who tried to break through.

At this moment, no one wanted to break out of the siege. Only Ping An was brave enough to rush out of the chaotic army.

"Go away!!"

His horse stirred, and after swinging several spears left and right, he successfully broke through the encirclement, but there was no one following him.

Not everyone is as brave as him, at least not among the more than 8,000 Confederate cavalry.

"Catch Pingbao'er for me!"

Seeing that Ping An was able to ride out of the spear formation alone, Zhu Di, who was chasing after him, was very surprised, but still gave orders calmly.

The Yan army cavalry came out from the passage vacated by the spear formation, and more than a hundred cavalry chased and killed them and left safely.

Seeing this, Ping An could only flee in embarrassment alone. While escaping, he cut off the rations, vests and other burdens on the left and right sides of the saddle and threw them away. The big food horse he was riding was given by Zhu Yuanzhang during his lifetime. It was extremely fast, so after running for several miles, he successfully got rid of the Yan army cavalry behind him, but his condition was terrible.

Nine thousand cavalry went north, and now he was the only one left to escape. It would be better to die on the battlefield.

"I still have to save my life and go to the south to report the news!"

Ping An persuaded himself to save his life and rode his horse to retreat to the river in the south.

But compared to him, the heavily surrounded Confederate cavalry was terrible.

Yang Song and Pan Zhong were captured alive by Zhu Neng and others. Most of the nine thousand Confederate cavalry were killed or wounded, and the rest surrendered.

Zhu Di ordered Zhang Yu and Zhang Xin to clean up the mess, and went out of the formation. After taking off his armor, he sat on the grass in embarrassment.

"Your Highness, are you okay?"

Zhu Neng discovered that Zhu Di was not in the formation, so he went out to find him.

He was not injured at the moment, but Zhu Neng was still worried about asking.

When Zhu Di heard this, he thought he was injured. After groping around to make sure he was okay, he shook his head: "I'm okay. You and Zhang Yu should go and count the seizures as quickly as possible."

"Yes!" Seeing that Zhu Di was fine, Zhu Neng returned to the formation and counted the prisoners and seizures with Zhang Yu and the others.

Time passed, and the Yan army that fought early in the morning finally ended the battle at midnight. It took a whole hour just to count the battle damage and prisoners, and to capture the number of horses and armor.

By the time Zhang Yu had taken stock of everything, it was already noon.

He rode up to Zhu Di and dismounted, and explained the situation in general.

"We killed more than 900 people in the battle and injured more than 2,000 people with minor or serious injuries. They died in the battle with more than 1,400 people and injured more than 3,000 people with minor or serious injuries. Only 4,327 of them were captured and could still fight. But they They brought a lot of horses, 9,000 people brought more than 15,000 military horses, 6,000 of which stayed in Mozhou."

"Then what are you waiting for?" When Zhu Di heard that there were 6,000 troops in Mozhou, he immediately began to wear armor: "Let Zhu Neng lead the cavalry to Mozhou, and while Pingbaoer detours to the west, we can take the opportunity to capture Mozhou!"

"Yes!" Zhang Yuzuo bowed in agreement, and after the Qianhu officials who followed him gave orders, Zhu Di soon saw more than 4,000 Yan army cavalry heading south.

With the help of Zhang Yu and others, he also put on armor and told Zhang Yu: "Send someone to send these captured cavalry to Peiping for training, and then use them after this battle."

"Choose good riders from the army to ride on their horses, and follow me south to Mozhou in half an hour."

After Zhu Di ordered everything, Zhang Yu did as he said and handed over the surviving 6,000 army horses to the infantry in the army who knew how to equestrian skills.

Half an hour later, Zhu Di led 6,000 men southward, while Zhang Yu sent 2,000 men to Zhang Xin, and asked Zhang Xin to escort 7,000 Confederate prisoners north to Peiping, while he led 20,000 soldiers southward.

After two fierce battles, the Yan army lost more than 4,000 men. Counting the 5,000 men who escorted them northward, they only had 30,000 men in hand.

Of course, after these two fierce battles, their mobility has also been greatly improved.

With the 8,000 mules and horses from Xiong County and the 6,000 troops captured at Yueyang Bridge, plus the more than 4,000 surviving troops from the Yan Army, nearly two-thirds of the 30,000 men in Zhu Di's hands were able to manage one man and one horse.

With this speed, they rushed south for fifty-two miles, and successfully arrived in Mozhou before arriving safely, and captured the thousand households left behind in Mozhou. Zhang Bao surrendered voluntarily. Mozhou commander Wang Save and escape.

The three thousand defenders in the city were captured by the Yan army, and Zhu Neng also captured the six thousand horses that Ping An and others had stored here.

By the time Zhu Di arrived in Mozhou, it was already Youshi (17 o'clock).

At this time, he already had more than 10,000 cavalry, 14,000 horse infantry and 6,000 infantry under his command. On the other hand, the Southern Army's cavalry only had 5,000 cavalry under Xu Kai's command.

Sitting in the Mozhou County yamen, Zhu Di waited for Zhang Yu's 20,000 infantry before the sky turned completely dark.

After the battle, Zhu Di ordered people to buy enough meat from the county government treasury. While rewarding the army, he also feasted on it in the county government.

There were at least six or seven plates of meat and vegetables placed in front of everyone, but they were all waiting for Zhu Di to take down his chopsticks.

After Zhu Di took the lead in using his chopsticks, the group of men started devouring the food, and soon there was only a mess on the table.

"Your Highness, are we going to withdraw to Peiping?"

"We have captured a lot, why not withdraw and wait for His Highness to capture Shanhaiguan and join our army before heading south for a decisive battle with the Southern Army?"

"Yes, a lot was captured in this battle. Not only did they capture 200,000 stones of grain and grass from Xiongxian and Mozhou, they also captured nearly 20,000 horses and mules, and captured more than 10,000 people."

At the dinner table, Qiu Fu and Zhang Xin spoke, but after eating, Zhu Di shook his head:

"I said that this time we went south to completely defeat the main force of the Southern Army. At present, we have only defeated the defenders of Ping'an and two counties, which total only 15,000 people."

"This small blow will not do much harm to the Southern Army. As long as my nephew wants to, he can spend another month to mobilize 5,000 cavalry under Song Sheng from the northwest to come to Peiping."

"Besides, if we don't fight, but let the Confederate army clear the country and build fortifications, it will be difficult for us to go south."

"Both Gao Xu and us are actually worried about running out of food. Only by going all the way south and reaching the Huaihe River can we solve the problem of insufficient food and grass."

"Therefore, I want to completely defeat the main force of the Southern Army and buy time for Gao Xu to join us."

Zhu Di stated that he would continue to fight. After hearing this, Zhu Neng also said: "Xu Kai in the south is only sixty miles away from Mozhou. He has the last five thousand elite cavalry and ten thousand infantry of the Southern Army. If we can capture him, the Confederate Army will not dare to fight with us in the field."

Zhu Neng felt that as long as he captured Xu Kai, he could stop the southern army from moving north, but Zhu Di shook his head:

"You think we should hit Xu Kai, then Geng Bingwen and Ning Zhong must also think so. It is precisely because they think so that I have to catch them off guard."

After saying that, Zhu Di looked at Zhu Neng: "What is the name of the man who opened the gate for our army in Mozhou City?"

"Zhang Bao, a Qianhu official, was once our soldier."

Zhu Neng responded without hesitation, and Zhu Di nodded: "Recruit him, I have something to say to him."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Neng immediately recruited Zhang Bao, but his appearance was not outstanding and he did not leave any good memory in Zhu Di's mind.

But even so, Zhu Di still patted Zhang Bao on the shoulder: "Right now, the Southern Army doesn't know that Mozhou has surrendered to me. If you have the courage, I want you to go and deliver the message as a defeated army."

"The general is full of courage!" Zhang Bao was not afraid, but agreed directly, without even asking what he wanted to say to Zhu Di.

"Okay!" Zhu Di looked satisfied and said in a serious tone: "I want you to ride to Zhending alone and tell Geng Bingwen and the others that Mozhou has been lost. The Ping An troops heading to Xiong County were wiped out by me. I am now heading to Zhending. Attack."

"The last general takes orders!" Zhang Bao thought that Zhu Di was going to attack Xu Kai, so he deliberately gave false information to Geng Bingwen and agreed immediately.

"Go ahead, do this well, and your contribution will be enough to promote you to the third level!" Zhu Di patted him, and Zhang Bao didn't say anything more, turned around and left.

After he left, Qiu Fu and others stood up and said puzzledly: "Your Highness, you said we were going to get true determination, and now you asked Zhang Bao to tell Geng Bingwen the truth, then aren't we reporting our own status?"

"I just want to give them the real news!" Zhu Di was confident, and then ordered: "Zhang Yu!"

"The general is here!" Zhang Yu stood up, and Zhu Di said: "Tomorrow morning I will take 10,000 cavalry out of the city, and you take 23,000 people from Mozhou to attack Zhending."

"The general takes the order!" Zhang Yu agreed first, and then asked: "Which route should the general take to attack?"

"You can go any way, as long as you remember not to attack any city along the way, just aim directly at Zhending." Zhu Di explained.

"Yes!" Zhang Yu was a little confused, but he still chose to obey orders first and then put forward opinions.

"Your Highness, if our army marches like this, the front and rear of the army will be exposed to the front of the Confederate army. Once the main force of the Confederate army and Xu Kai in Hejian attack one after another, we may not be able to win. After all, their strength is still four times that of ours. …”

Zhang Yu's words also expressed the thoughts of the generals.

It is a taboo for military strategists to place the army in the enemy's front and back attack, not to mention that Zhu Di has asked Zhang Bao to tell Geng Bingwen that they will lead the army to attack Geng Bingwen's main force.

At this time, once Geng Bingwen makes adjustments, how many of their 30,000 people can survive?

Faced with everyone's concerns, Zhu Di comforted him and said, "I will lead the cavalry to cut off the Zhending Food Road and provide cover for you."

"What you have to do is very simple, that is, arrive at the north bank of the Hutuo River in Zhending City at midnight on August 19. You will know how to fight then."

Zhu Di only gave a rough idea, but years of cooperation made Zhang Yu choose to believe Zhu Di.

"In this case, the general will arrive on time. However, it is at least three hundred miles from Mozhou to the north bank of Zhending. Even if our army marches day and night, it can only cover a hundred miles at most. Even if it reaches the north bank of Zhending at midnight on the 19th, , I’m afraid the number of soldiers and horses will also drop by half..."

Zhang Yu opened his mouth to talk about the dilemma he encountered. After all, not every army is like the Bohai Navy, where everyone is an infantryman.

Even the Bohai Navy will fall behind if they encounter a lack of time when facing medium and long-distance raids, not to mention the lack of horses.

Among the 23,000 people Zhu Di gave him, at least 9,000 people still had no horses.

Under such circumstances, the 23,000 people needed to march 300 miles in three days. Falling behind and losing numbers was definitely unpreventable.

Perhaps by then when he leads his army to Zhending, there will be only a few thousand soldiers and horses under his command.

"No problem, let the stragglers go north to Peiping."

Zhu Di spoke calmly. He was very aware of the problem of stragglers and attrition during medium and long-distance raids. This would happen even to his ten thousand cavalry, but that didn't matter, as long as they went north to Peiping and didn't go south to surrender to the enemy.

"Then there will be no problem."

Zhang Yu saw Zhu Di saying this, and he had no way to refute, so he could only accept the task.

Seeing Zhang Yu accepting the task, Zhu Di also nodded and looked at everyone: "Zhu Neng, Qiu Fu, Ma He, Wang Yan, you will go out with me. Zhang Xin, you and Zhang Yu will lead the army to the north bank of Zhending."

"The last general takes orders!!"

Everyone responded loudly, and then Zhu Di dismissed them to rest.

The Yan army was very tired at the moment, but the war did not allow them to rest too much.

After resting for three and a half hours, Zhu Di led tens of thousands of cavalry, prepared enough horse supplies, and left the city from the east of Mozhou City.

At dawn, Zhang Yu and Zhang Bao also left the city on their behalf.

The difference between the two is that Zhang Yu wants to lead troops to fight Zhending, while Zhang Bao wants to send news to Zhending, and it is real news...

　"Records of Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty": During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Changxing Marquis Geng Bingwen led 300,000 troops to Zhending, Commander Xu Kai led 100,000 troops to Hejian, Commander Pan Zhong commanded Yang Song to camp in Mozhou, and 9,000 of his brave pioneers had occupied In Xiong County, they were looting and plundering, and they led their troops to defend them. When the division arrived at Zhuozhou, he said: "Tonight, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, he will drink to his heart's content without expecting me to arrive. If he doesn't take warning, we can defeat him." He urged the troops to move quickly.

　　We arrived at Xiongxian County in the middle of the night and surrounded the city. The city was sleepy and we went up to the city to curse. Our army was angry. At dawn, we climbed up and defeated the city. An urgent order was issued to warn the generals not to kill him. The generals were angry and scolded him, and executed them all, and captured more than 8,000 horses.

　　Ping An, Pan Zhong, and Yang Song are in Mozhou. Unexpectedly, if the city is broken, they will surely attract people to help. He told the generals: "I will be born to Ping Pan Yang." The generals did not say anything, so they ordered Tan Yuan to lead more than a thousand troops to conquer first. Yueyang Bridge, lying in the water, waiting for Ping An and others to cross the bridge. Hearing the sound of cannons, they immediately took up positions on the bridge and attacked from behind. The southern army was defeated. Ping An's cavalry was defeated and fled alone. Yang Song and Pan Zhong were captured. They led the troops They captured Mozhou and divided their troops into Zhending the next day.

　　The generals asked: "Now that we are not letting him know about it and covering up his unpreparedness, how can we send an escort to warn him to be prepared?"

　　The previous day: "Otherwise, we didn't know the reality of the camp at first, so we wanted to cover it up. Now that we know that half of the camp is in the south of Henan and half in the north of Hebei, we should let people know that I'm coming. The people on the south bank will move to the north and try to resist them. I They can be defeated in one fell swoop. At the same time, they want to defeat Mozhou in Zhixiong County in order to deprive them of their energy. The art of war is to make a sound first and then make a real move. If they are not informed, the path is thin below the city, and the cone can defeat the army on the north bank and the army on the south bank. Everyone is riding on me, tired of fighting, and marching across the river with drums, but I have to work hard to help others. Victory or defeat is hard to come by, and people who have committed themselves to serve me should be sincere and let them do their job, even if they are against their will...

　　

　

(End of this chapter)