The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 333: Talking about Character

Huang Tingbao didn't know that Mo Zibu had already figured him out, but in his heart, he felt just as Ning Xun, the proofreader and staff officer beside him, believed: the commander of the Beihe troops had lost his faith in Taoism.

Although Huang Tingbao held a high position, he was able to pretend to be respectful to the wise and humble, so much so that he was known as the Little Mengchang in Beihe.

But in essence, he is still a third-generation military hero who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He may have the ability, but his ability to withstand pressure is only at the level of an ordinary nobleman.

So Huang Tingbao really couldn't bear it anymore. As soon as he closed his eyes, the images that emerged in his mind were either King Jingdu Zheng Sen killing his entire family, or being hacked to death by the soldiers under him because he refused to wear the yellow robe.

At the same time, the deaths of his second brother Huang Tingti and two nephews in battle, as well as the earlier death of his adoptive father and uncle Huang Wufu, dealt a heavy blow to Huang Tingbao.

He really couldn't bear it anymore. Regardless of winning or losing, he just hoped for a quick result and even hoped to find relief through death.

Yuhuang Mountain was about ten miles away from Huang Tingbao's army's fort, so Mo Zibu first used light cavalry to control the situation and cover the army's movements.

Pierre Ney and Zhu Wen led 300 cavalrymen to cover the vanguard army, first descended Yuhuang Mountain and drove out the Beihe cavalry on the plain.

At that time, the inner town of Thanh Hoa was called Shuiyuan City. About six or seven miles northwest of Shuiyuan City, there was a small hill with a temple on it called Chongsheng Temple.

Between Chongsheng Temple and Shuiyuan City is a vast plain, in the middle of which Zhujiang, a tributary of Majiang, runs.

The real role of cavalry on the battlefield is not to form a formation to attack the infantry, but to cover the advance of the main army before the battle, while obscuring the battlefield and making the enemy deaf and blind.

During wartime, it is mainly used to compress the enemy infantry's formation and mobility, as well as to give the final blow to the enemy on the verge of collapse and expand the results of the battle after defeating the enemy.

The cavalry that can truly attack the infantry in formation must be heavy cavalry with both the horse and the rider armored. However, such heavy cavalry are rare both in ancient China and in the Middle Ages in the West.

First, it is difficult to train, and second, the cost is too high.

Therefore, the Jin Dynasty, which had such a cavalry at that time, was known as the invincible Jurchens and was able to achieve brilliant results such as the Battle of Hubudagan.

The Western Xia, with only two or three thousand Iron Harriers, was able to use its remote location to fight against the two great powers of Song and Liao, and also have enough energy to attack the various Hu peoples in the Western Regions.

Moreover, this type of cavalry has another characteristic, which is that it basically only appears in the north, and not south of the Yangtze River, let alone Lingnan.

What limited them was not the southerners' riding and shooting abilities, but the weather, so all the cavalry under Huang Tingbao were light cavalry.

Well, or rather, they weren't even light cavalry.

Not only is the climate in Annan unable to support the large-scale emergence of cavalry, but even if cavalry appeared, they would not have strong riding and archery capabilities because bows and crossbows were difficult to preserve.

Therefore, the main combat methods of the Beihe cavalry were two: one was to quickly maneuver and then dismount to form a formation and kill the enemy with muskets and spears, acting as dragoons; the other was to defeat the enemy and then mount the horse to chase and kill with spears and sabers.

What a coincidence! The hussars under Mo Zibu also fought in this way.

The only thing that made them better than the Northern River Cavalry was that they were equipped with more advanced flintlock rifles and two-handed guns, which gave them good projectile capabilities even on horseback.

Thus, these two basically homogeneous cavalry encountered each other on this small plain.

"Kill the foreign devils!" The sound of horse hooves was heard, and about a hundred Beihe cavalrymen discovered more than twenty Longxiang Hussars. They rushed over with cheers.

Pierre Ney's nose was crooked with anger. He had learned some Annanese, so he could understand it.

These damn guys still think of themselves as barbarians. We French are also civilized white people. Don’t look down on us like that.

"Charge forward, get close to them, and shoot them with your pistol first!" Pierre Ney shouted in shame and anger.

A Beihe cavalryman held his spear in one hand, his eyes fixed on the foreign devil wearing gorgeous and strange battle clothes. He only needed a light blow to achieve great success.

In fact, just as he was speeding up, a flash of fire suddenly appeared in front of the cavalry on the opposite side, followed by a crackling sound and black smoke.

"Oh no!" Just as this thought flashed through the Beihe Cavalry's mind, he felt a huge push and a warm sensation on his chest.

He opened his mouth, and it seemed as if all his strength slipped away in an instant. The spear in his right hand fell to the ground, and he swayed twice on the horse's back, then fell headfirst.

At a distance of more than 30 meters, the power and accuracy of the hand cannons were greatly improved. Pierre Ney's 25 cavalrymen instantly knocked down more than 20 Northern River cavalrymen in the first volley of two hand cannons.

The huge casualties in an instant immediately defeated the Beihe cavalry, which were not very elite to begin with. Quite a number of cavalry even chose to immediately dismount and flee to both sides.

But it was too late. The war horses of the Dragon Hussars came from India and were mixed with the blood of the Folded Horse. They could adapt to the tropics to a certain extent. Their instantaneous acceleration and sprint distance were both better than those of the Northern River War Horses.

Therefore, few of the frightened Beihe cavalry could escape.

The cavalry dogfight lasted until the afternoon. The Longxiang Hussars, with their weak force of only 600 cavalrymen, squeezed more than 3,000 Beihe cavalrymen to the point that they were almost unable to move, and successfully took control of the battlefield situation.

Mo Zibu then ordered Chen Guangyao to lead the vanguard, along with Generals Wu Wenyong, Louis Kulun, and Mo Gong, along with 9,000 men. Mo Zibu himself led 18,000 men as the main force of the central army, advancing slowly. Zhou Yuanquan led 2,000 men to defend Yuhuang Mountain, where they stored their logistical supplies.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, the vanguard army arrived near the Beihe Army's fort.

Chen Guangyao ordered someone to report that the Beihe Army was divided into three locations.

Nguyen Van Hue led 25,000 soldiers and stationed them at Chongsheng Temple on the left.

Huang Tingbao led the main force of the army of 20,000 and 50,000 auxiliary soldiers and civilian laborers, and stationed them in Shuiyuan City and its surroundings.

In addition, the commander of Thanh Hoa Town, Nguyen Kezun, led 3,000 soldiers to station in a small city on the bank of Zhujiang River. Behind the city were three pontoon bridges, which could be used for transportation on Zhujiang River.

Mo Zibu sneered, "You want me to split up my forces? Dream on! Ruan Wenhui is an outsider, and he's been losing ground lately. He can't control his men. If we ignore each other and go straight to attack Huang Tingbao, he won't dare not save him."

Knowing the inside story, he was so arrogant that I, King Mo, didn't care about Nguyen Van Hue and Nguyen Ke Zun at all. I exposed my flank to them with a swagger. The main force directly set up camp in the wilderness and the entire army attacked Huang Dinh Bao.

At this time, Huang Tingbao became a little cowardly. He did not choose to go into battle, but hid in the fort and dreamed of defending to the death.

At night, Nguyen Ke Zun, who was in the middle, was finally able to send out scouts to contact Nguyen Van Hue, because the cavalry of the Xing Tang Army could not cover the battlefield at night.

But Nguyen Van Hue was not at all impressed with this veteran general, because the reason he wanted to come back was because he had the idea that he would not necessarily be defeated.

Secondly, even if he failed, he still wanted to rescue Huang Tingbao. Without Huang Tingbao, it would be difficult for Nguyen Van Hue, a Guangnan native, to survive in Bac Ha.

So he directly rejected Ruan Kezun's messenger, "The southern bandits are elite, how could they not be on guard at night? Please report to the commander that a rash night attack is not safe. Our army has more soldiers and more food, but it is not as brave as the enemy. We should be cautious and cautious."

Ruan Kezun was really creative. He actually wanted to launch a night attack when the Xing Tang army left the Yuhuang Mountain Fort and set up camp in the wilderness.

This reminded Nguyen Van Hue of the incident outside Qui Nhon City when he personally led his troops to launch a night attack but was badly defeated.

From then on, he knew that the Xing Tang Army's military regulations were extremely strict and it was impossible for them to be unguarded at night.

Nguyen Ke Zun waited and waited, but ended up getting a rejection from Nguyen Van Hue, and he became furious.

"Guangnan's kid is truly a coward. He avoided fighting last time, and now he doesn't dare to go out to fight. I will lead the troops myself and let him see the might of a Beihe man!"

At three o'clock in the morning, Ruan Kezun selected the so-called three thousand elite soldiers, all of whom were dressed in black, with gags held in their mouths and horses with wrapped hooves. He ordered his general to lead them personally, and they actually came to raid the camp.

Mo Zibu was awakened from his sleep and stared at Chen Guangyao in amazement, who was looking angry.

"The Beihe bandits are so disrespectful. We set up camp that night, and they came to rob us that very night. Do they think we are three-year-old children?"

By dawn, Ruan Kezun's 3,000 men were trapped in the pocket of the angry Chen Guangyao and could not get out. The Xing Tang army formed a defensive line with line infantry and artillery, and the Beihe soldiers only had muskets and spears and could not break out at all.

By the time Huang Tingbao received the news and wanted to come to the rescue, it was too late. After the Beihe Army charged three times, their morale was completely lost. Hundreds were killed, over a thousand were injured, and the rest all surrendered.

Afterwards, Chen Guangyao launched a fierce attack on the riverside castle where Nguyen Kezun was stationed. All the elite troops of the Nguyen army had been killed, and the remaining troops had no intention of resisting. In just half an hour, this key point between Nguyen Van Hue and Huang Dinh Bao fell.

Ruan Kezun, a fool who had read basic military books, came from a literary class but liked to talk about war on paper, and often compared himself to Yu Yunwen, ruined the overall situation without knowing what was going on.

However, he was very tough. Before the Xing Tang army broke into the castle, he calmly wrote a suicide poem and then hung himself under the beam with two hemp ropes.

However, this kind of behavior of keeping silent and talking about one's character in normal times, but dying for the king in times of trouble is not only of no benefit, but also harmful to the overall situation.

Seeing the fortress guarded by Nguyen Khắc Thuan being captured, Nguyen Van Hue was also numb. He deeply realized that without his own direct troops, even if he had thousands of means, he would not be able to use them at all.

With Ruan Kezun's escort, Huang Tingbao, who was hiding in the fort, finally made up his mind to go to war.

He sent people to raise signal smoke and his own commander's flag to inform Nguyen Van Hue that 20,000 soldiers and 30,000 auxiliary soldiers and civilians were divided into six large formations and marched out to fight.

At the same time, Nguyen Van Hue on Chongsheng Temple also made a choice. He sent all the Beihe troops who were howling for a decisive battle with the Xing Tang Army and refused to obey his orders to attack the Xing Tang Army headquarters.

Nguyen Van Hue himself, with more than 2,000 people who were willing to follow him, headed straight for Jade Emperor Mountain.

He wanted to make one last struggle, just in case he could seize the Xing Tang Army's baggage and food supplies.

　I was finally discharged from the hospital after the examination last night. I never expected that a small coronavirus almost gave Tiger white lung.

　　Now that I'm well again, Lao Hu will try to speed up the update time and content. During the Qingming Festival holiday, I should be able to add one or two chapters.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)