Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 41: I have not realized my true self and am at the end of my rope (Part )

Crossing a river on a floating horse is a technical job. The river is different from the land. There are undercurrents of varying sizes everywhere. If you are not careful, you will be swept into the waves and both you and your horse will be lost.

But no matter how wide the Shuhe River is, is it as wide as the Yellow River?

During the Jingkang Incident, the Jin Dynasty invaded the south. The second prince Wanyan Zongmou, as the commander-in-chief, took off his armor in winter and led the army to cross the Yellow River on floating horses on the icy water.

The Song army on the other side of the Yellow River was so frightened by the fact that one of the nobles of the Jin Kingdom was so desperate to kill himself that they fled in panic.

The Yellow River defense line, which the Song State had high hopes for, was pierced in this inexplicable way.

Both were facing a vast country. The Jin army, which had only 2,000 soldiers and horses to fight against the Liao Dynasty, was not afraid of the Yellow River. How could the loyal army, which had only 3,000 soldiers and horses to fight in the north today, be afraid of the Shu River?
During the process of crossing the river, the one hundred armored cavalrymen drank a bellyful of water and some of them dropped two bags of food, but no one fell behind or drowned.

Under the leadership of Zhang Xiaoyi, the crowd still formed groups of ten or five, led their horses into the endless reed marsh, and headed towards their destination with one step deep and one step shallow.

It is unknown how many times the Shuhe River has flooded, and it is unknown how long the surrounding land has been left idle. The silt in this muddy pond is so fertile that oil can even be seen, and the reeds growing in it are more than two meters tall.

The sunlight is blocked by the reed leaves, but the heat is mercilessly retained under the reed marsh. The rising water vapor is also blocked by the reed leaves and cannot be dissipated. The entire reed marsh is like a steamer.

The entire team quickly lost the desire to speak and just moved forward in silence and mechanically.

Liu Huai held a long and narrow machete in his hand and cleared the way ahead with Zhang Xiaoyi. The clear water he drank quickly turned into sweat and flowed through the wounds cut by the reed leaves, giving people a strange itchy and painful sensation as if being scratched by a sharp knife.

Liu Huai was actually quite grateful for this pain, because only in this way could he feel his arm gradually becoming numb.

He didn't know how many times he swung the knife. Just when Liu Huai was starting to suspect that Zhang Xiaoyi was lying, his eyes suddenly became clear, the heat disappeared, and a cool breeze blew on his face.

"It's right here!" Zhang Xiaoyi said excitedly, leaning on his knife, panting.

Liu Huai led the large black horse from behind, mounted it, and galloped left and right. Zhang Xiaoyi quickly made way for the soldiers behind him and ordered them to set up camp and rest.

After taking a look around, Liu Huai found that this place was even better than Zhang Xiaoyi described.

This place seems to be a high platform for military parades in the past, or it seems to be the burial mound of a wealthy family. The lower layer is piled with cement, which is extremely solid in itself. In addition, it is covered with several layers of sand and gravel, making the area within a radius of one mile all white.

Liu Huai stood on horseback and looked around. To the east and north, there was endless green. About three miles to the south was the Shu River. Only to the west, less than a mile away, was the reed marsh.

And after another mile, you should reach the official road.

"What a great place!" Liu Huai saw Zhang Xiaoyi also standing on horseback and immediately pointed to the west: "Set up camp here. When the Jin thieves pass by, we can immediately rush into their formation!"

Even Zhang Baiyu, the opponent who had been complaining before, had to nod in agreement.

But Zhang Xiaoyi didn't respond. Instead, he stared absentmindedly toward the northwest. "That...that's smoke coming from cooking fires? Is there actually a village here?"

Liu Huai looked in the direction of Zhang Xiaoyi's finger and saw only a thin wisp of smoke hanging several miles away, which was not clear unless you looked carefully.

"Maybe. Lianghuai should have been a densely populated area. After the floods and wars, it's not surprising to have one or two settlements."

Liu Huai did not doubt that it was the smoke from cooking in the camp set up by the Jin army. The army and civilians acted differently, so if there were only three or five hundred soldiers gathered, there would have been chaos.

Zhang Xiaoyi sat back on his horse, looking hesitant.

Liu Huai knew what he was thinking and immediately shook his head: "Now the troops are exhausted and need to rest. Besides, the surroundings are uncertain. If the Jin thieves are smart, they will know our army has arrived when they see the scouts. Tomorrow, I will go with you to investigate!"

Hearing Liu Huai say this, Zhang Xiaoyi could only nod in agreement.

After a hundred knights filed out of the reeds, they quickly dispersed. After a few men stood guard, the rest began to remove their armor and cloaks from their horses and hastily set up camp. Several others fetched water with buckets or cut grass with long knives, preparing to take care of their horses first. The camp automatically began to operate in an orderly manner.

From this, it can be seen that these 120 armored cavalry are indeed frequent visitors to the battlefield, and even though their composition is extremely complex, they can quickly coordinate with each other.

Fifty of them were Zhang Rong's former subordinates, including some old thieves from Liangshanpo.

Twenty-six of the riders were participants in the Haizhou Uprising led by Zhang Wang and Xu Yuan. They followed Zhang Xiaoyi to break out of the Jin army's encirclement and head south.

There were forty-four riders who were heroes that Wei Sheng had made friends with and were his subordinates.

Theoretically, these people belong to Liu Huai, Zhang Xiaoyi and Zhang Baiyu.

Zhang Baiyu and Zhang Xiaoyi took orders from Liu Huai.

But theory is theory, and practice is practice.

The power of these three people all comes from their fathers, but power has always been from the bottom up. It is not that having the title of a superior can make subordinates completely convinced. Military merits, rewards and prospects are also needed.

More than a hundred knights obeyed Liu Huai's orders, but they only obeyed Liu Huai's orders, not swearing allegiance to him until death.

This was not only reflected in the fact that Zhang Baiyu repeatedly sang a different tune, but also in the fact that when Zhang Baiyu sang a different tune, Liu Huai's knights did not immediately draw their swords and rebuke him.

However, military affairs are complicated and simple at the same time. As long as Liu Huai can win a few battles, everything will be fine.

Liu Huai took a dry linen cloth and carefully wiped the sweat off the big black horse, as if he was wiping a piece of beautiful jade.

It was too hot just now, and this warhorse that grew up in the north was obviously not used to it. It was covered in sweat and snorted constantly.

Do not use cold water to wash at this time, otherwise the warhorse will get sick.

To be honest, whether in his past life or this life, Liu Huai was not as careful with himself as he was with this warhorse.

You have to be careful.

Every qualified war horse was extremely valuable, especially in the relatively peaceful 31st year of Shaoxing.

To train a war horse, one must first select a horse with the right shoulder height and physique.

Then train the horses to carry people in circles,

Then train the horses to carry people and shoot targets with lances.

Then they trained horses to carry people and use lances to make paper-made human-shaped targets.

Then, horses were trained to carry people and use lances to pierce paper targets holding soft material spears.
Then they trained the horses to carry people, and in an environment with people neighing, horses shouting, and gongs and drums beating, they used lances to pierce paper targets holding spears made of soft materials.

After a gradual process, unqualified horses will be eliminated and only qualified war horses will remain.

This kind of warhorse is naturally not afraid of gunfire and arrows, because it has experienced everything on the battlefield during training and is very familiar with it.

Of course, this is the practice in peacetime. Once a full-scale war breaks out, all horses, good or bad, will have to go to the battlefield. After a few bloody battles, only qualified war horses will survive.

(End of this chapter)