History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 452: Battle of Chicken Bridge 1
【Battle of Chicken Trace Bridge 1】

Meng Zhixiang sent cavalry commander Pan Rensi to lead 3,000 soldiers to station in Hanzhou.

Dong Zhang came with great force and conquered Yanglin Town, which was adjacent to Hanzhou in the east, and captured the town commander Wu Hongli, which greatly boosted the morale of the people.

After losing the first battle, Meng Zhixiang was worried.

Zhao Jiliang advised Meng Zhixiang to "lead the army in person" and analyzed that Dong Zhang actually did not know how to fight at all, and was only reckless and aggressive. He used all the elite troops as vanguards, so he often started out very intimidating and acted as fiercely as a tiger. However, he was usually ungrateful to his subordinates, and his soldiers were alienated from him. If we use the old, weak, sick and disabled to feign defeat to lure the enemy, and then ambush them with elite troops, we will surely achieve a great victory.

Zhao Tingyin expressed his agreement and said that Dong Zhang was frivolous and unwise, at best a reckless man, who would be defeated sooner or later, and he was willing to capture him for his lord.

Meng Zhixiang was overjoyed, so he let Zhao Tingyin take command of an army of 30,000 to resist the enemy.

Just when Meng Zhixiang was giving Zhao Tingyin a farewell party, a courier brought several letters, the recipients of which were Meng Zhixiang, Zhao Tingyin, Zhao Jiliang and Li Zhao.

The content of the letter was to tell Meng Zhixiang that these people were secretly colluding with me, Dong Zhang, and secretly surrendered to Dongchuan. They were my high-level spies, so they tried to come to the front line to meet up with me and conspire for big things. Meng Zhixiang, you are finished.

Meng Zhixiang almost burst out laughing. It seems that we owe Jiang Gan an apology for all these years. "Jiang Gan stealing books" is not the most idiotic thing. Dong Zhang is even funnier than Jiang Gan.

Meng Zhixiang handed the letter to Zhao Tingyin, "This is Dong Zhang's letter. Please take a look."

Zhao Tingyin threw it to the ground without even looking at it, sneered and said, "It's nothing more than a plot to sow discord. You want the lord to kill Zhao Jiliang and me, Zhao Tingyin." Then he kowtowed to Meng Zhixiang and said goodbye, and resolutely led the army to the front line.

Looking at Zhao Tingyin's receding back, Meng Zhixiang murmured, "My great ambition can be accomplished!"

Li Zhao was still stationed in Lizhou when he received Dong Zhang's letter of discord. Li Zhao was illiterate, so he opened the letter, frowned, and pretended to read it for a long time, then said to his subordinates: "You are so eloquent and roundabout, just to make me rebel." However, Li Zhao's approach was to play two sides. On the one hand, he imprisoned the Dongchuan envoy, and on the other hand, he really did not move his troops to wait and see, ready to change sides at any time.

After Dong Zhang captured Yanglin Town, he immediately launched an attack on Hanzhou. Pan Rensi was defeated and captured, and Hanzhou fell. The morale of the Dongchuan army was boosted again. Dong Zhang was very proud and thought that Meng Zhixiang of Xichuan was no better than him. It was just a matter of time before he could capture Chengdu.

Hanzhou is located between Mengjiang River and Luoshui River. Mengjiang River is the only natural barrier between Hanzhou and Chengdu. If the Dongchuan soldiers cross the Mengjiang River in one go, the defense of Chengdu will most likely take place.

Jizong Bridge on the Mengjiang River became the focus of contention between the two sides. The "Battle of Jizong Bridge" would become an important turning point in the civil war between the two Sichuan provinces, and both sides attached great importance to it.

Meng Zhixiang played to his strengths and used his best skills - writing manifestos to boost his own morale and undermine the enemy's fighting spirit, emphasizing that this was an unjust war of aggression launched by Dong Zhang, a "traitor" to the court and a traitor to the country.

The speech was passionate and eloquent. Whether it was due to excessive excitement or nervousness, there was a typo in the first sentence of the article, in which the character "董" in "董璋" was mistakenly written as "重".

Just when Meng Zhixiang was still immersed in embarrassment, Secretary Li Hao congratulated Meng Zhixiang. Not only did he congratulate himself, he also pulled other staff members to congratulate Meng Zhixiang together.

Meng Zhixiang was slightly displeased and said, "Now that a great war is underway, the outcome is unpredictable, so why should we be happy?" Li Hao explained, "This character 'Dong' is a character 'Zhong' under the grass radical. Now, my lord, you inadvertently removed the grass radical. This is God's will!"

"What providence?"

"Dong Zhang is headless! This is a sign that our army will win. Of course we should congratulate him!"

This flattery is appreciated by both the elite and the masses, and there is nothing wrong with it. Meng Zhixiang immediately became happy and deliberately distributed this "headless Dong" version of the document to the front line to boost morale.

This operation left Dong Zhang at a loss, because if "孟" was mistakenly written as "子" or "皿", it would seem too artificial and unnatural. Otherwise, Dong Zhang could use "吳勁勁" to counter "頭無董".

Let fantasy be fantasy, let talk be talk, keyboard warriors cannot kill Dong Zhang.

Meng Zhixiang left Zhao Jiliang and Gao Jingrou to guard Chengdu, while he personally led 8,000 elite troops to arrive at Mimu Town (south of Jizong Bridge); Zhao Tingyin led the vanguard troops to continue northward and built the first line of defense north of Mimu Town.

At dawn the next day, Zhao Tingyin led his troops forward and set up a position directly on Jizong Bridge; the combat commander Zhang Gongduo formed a second line of defense behind Zhao Tingyin.

In this way, three lines of defense were formed from the preset battlefield Jizong Bridge to Meng Zhixiang's main force, forming a strong strategic depth and preparing for the war.

Near noon, Dong Zhang also led the main force and slowly approached.

Meng Zhixiang asked the surrendered soldiers from Dongchuan to wear bright and beautiful brocade clothes, hold letters of persuasion, and go to the front of Dongchuan to induce surrender and undermine the enemy's morale. Dong Zhang replied: "It has come to this point, like an arrow shot from a bow, there is no turning back!"

Meng Zhixiang did not hide far away in the Mimou Town position, but personally came to the front line, walked among the grassroots soldiers, comforted and encouraged the soldiers. It was early summer, the Sichuan Basin was hot and humid, and the heat was unbearable. Meng Zhixiang sweated through his clothes without complaint, expressing his willingness to share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers, creating an image of being close to the people who loved the soldiers like his own sons, and putting on a show at the front line.

The morale of Xichuan soldiers was immediately boosted, sweeping away the low mood caused by the initial defeat, and they were all as excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

Dong Zhang saw that the Xichuan soldiers were numerous and full of fighting spirit, so he did not dare to fight them. So he chose to temporarily avoid the enemy and ordered his troops to retreat a distance. Wait and see.

Before the battle, the generals of Dongchuan had underestimated the enemy of Xichuan. After the battle started smoothly, they conquered Hanzhou and captured Pan Rensi alive. They were even more arrogant. Finally, they had a chance to fight the main force of Xichuan head-on and win the victory in one battle. However, the commander Dong Zhang suddenly backed down. The generals were very dissatisfied, so they shouted at Dong Zhang, "General, are we here to bask in the sun? Why don't you attack?"

Dong Zhang could not withstand the pressure, so he was forced by other generals to issue the order to attack.

As soon as the two armies came into contact, Zhang Shoujin, the commander-in-chief of the right wing of Dongchuan, surrendered voluntarily and revealed an important military intelligence: Dong Zhang brought out all the armed forces of Dongchuan, and these are the ones in front of them, with no follow-up support!
As soon as the battle started, Dongchuan's right wing collapsed and reported Dongchuan's strengths and weaknesses to Meng Zhixiang. However, Dong Zhang's Dongchuan Army should not be underestimated after all. His fighting style was to start strong but end weak. He concentrated the most elite troops and launched a mindless charge. The victory or failure depended entirely on the first wave of charge.

Can Meng Zhixiang hold on?
(End of this chapter)