open sea

Chapter 1191: Bridge

"It's almost time, the enemy should have spotted us."

Maybe the French light cavalry was cautious enough, or maybe it was the rush to build fortifications all night that made the Ming army scouts a little lax.

Yuan Zizhang had slowed down the marching speed of the French army to half that of the Ming army, and increased the rest time to twice that of the Ming army. He believed that the French army should have caught up, but there was still no information about the enemy's movements on both sides of the stone bridge.

He stubbornly believed that he had waited too long for this battle.

Enrolled in Wu Jinshi, entered the lecture hall, joined the Beiyang Army, dispatched the East Army, and went east to Europe... The first time I led the army out, I should have a big fight with the enemy, so I arrived at this bridge on the way to withdraw the troops. He stopped.

The Crane River is diverted here to join a river named Charente. The stone bridge has been built on it for many years. The French army on the east bank of the Crane River needs to pass through it to reach the west bank, and the army on the west bank also needs to be here. Assemble, the two armies meet and form a powerful force.

If the battle starts here, it should be a battle worthy of the many years he has been waiting for.

But his personal ambition can only support him to rest here for two hours. If this is the end of the matter, he should have led the army to Dingjiazhuang at this moment.

After the vanguard army was reorganized, there were still seventeen hundred households, and the three extra small flags became the direct command flags of the participating generals and guerrilla generals. The successive battles caused them to consume a lot of gunpowder, and the remaining gunpowder could no longer be used by the tiger squatting guns. During the war, the sound was continuously fired, the firepower was weakened, and the troops were insufficient, so there was no choice but to retreat.

But when the heaven and the earth are united, in the morning when Yuan Zizhang reluctantly bid farewell to the stone bridge after the pioneer army had a sleep, Kang Gulu, the reinforcement leader sent by Chen Jiujing in Baishan City, drove with heavy horses. 180 Li, told him that the reinforcement infantry and the baggage vehicles were on their way.

Yuan Zizhang's heart is settled.

The Beiyang Banner Army demolished the camp, set up horses on the bridge with sharpened wooden thorns, buried the clean military ration pots on the west bank, and dug fortifications on the spot. The first fortifications were built on the foxholes that had been left, and they were expanded into half-length trenches before the arrival of the pursuers.

As for the complete trenches, Yuan Zizhang had no hope at all. The weather was so cold that it seemed that there were already signs of freezing. The workload that can be completed in half an hour will take at least an hour here.

When the fortifications were completed, soldiers from the six hundred households entered the half-length ditch and began to reinforce the wooden wall. The scouts on the outside still found no sign that the enemy was approaching ten miles away. The fort, General Liumen Zhenshuo and a large amount of ammunition transported by Jurchen horse archers on the road solved his urgent needs, and also strengthened the confidence of the vanguard stationed here to carry out a French offensive.

"It's so easy?"

Kang Gulu took the armored iron pagoda built for him by Chen Jiujing, and was amazed at the offensive of the vanguard army these days. He looked eagerly at the detailed map drawn by the Beiyang Banner Army in Yuan Zizhang's hand, took off his iron gauntlet and stretched his arms. He drew a line on the map with his finger, and said: "Give me this river bank. You have built the bridgehead as solid as gold, and the enemy troops on the east bank may not eat your hard nail."

He chose the south bank where the southern river diverts. It is the rear side of Yuan Zizhang's department relative to the bridge head. Water to cross the river, if the enemy dares to cross the river from there, I will crush them."

Hearing Kang Gulu take it for granted that 'if they are not afraid of the cold', Yuan Zizhang smiled, turned his head and pointed to the repaired earthen fortress, and said, "Then you can score [-] cavalry for me to prevent the enemy from outflanking from the left. They probably won't go across the river unless they go a few miles to the east."

The French army is likely to be unwilling to detour, but General Zhenshuo will teach them to detour.

More importantly, Yuan Zizhang knew very well that his enemies were afraid of the cold, and they were terribly afraid...Compared with their troops who all had cotton-padded coats and armor, the soldiers of the French army were dressed too thinly, let alone wading and swimming. Trapping them in camp for a few days would leave someone with frostbite.

"One hundred and fifty riders, I'll give you another six hundred bows, what do you need so many iron Buddhas to defend the flanks?"

Except for the riverside, there are abandoned farmlands everywhere here, and the terrain is flat. Heavy cavalry can be used as a decisive force on this land. Yuan Zizhang's subordinates have few cavalry, and they pay more attention to these Jurchen heavy cavalry. He said: "Give me three Hundred heavy cavalry, I have no intention of defending on the left flank, as long as they are not allowed to attack from the left flank, it seems that defending on the left flank is the same as cavalry maneuvering to the enemy's rear."

Yuan Zizhang had just finished speaking when he saw several Jurchen riders wearing Liaodong bowl helmets coming from the north on horseback, hesitantly facing the trench fortifications, and finally was led back by the banner army in the trench, bypassing the trap, and hurriedly said: "You The rider is back, let's see if there is any good news."

Kang Gulu was overjoyed when he heard the words, and simply walked over quickly.

At this time, there is almost no bad news for them. The worst news may be that the French army retreated for no reason.

But the cavalry just bowed down and said a few words, and Yuan Zizhang saw the general of the Baishan camp laughing, and walked along while laughing: "General Yuan, you can't guess why the enemy marched slowly. In this garrison, the enemy troops on the west bank are busy collecting grass seeds and digging wild vegetables twelve miles north of the river, and they seem to want to come back after a full meal; most of the enemy troops on the east bank are also looming on the river bank."

"Over there, it seems that the food and grass have not been eaten yet. The five thousand-man teams are busy transporting logs and preparing for the camp before sunset."

Kang Gulu admired Yuan Zizhang, the orthodox military general education and the court officers trained in the most mysterious martial arts hall in Ming Dynasty. No matter whether he intercepted the military rations or followed the trend and trapped the enemy's luggage under a small mountain, he did not take much effort to suffocate the enemy. Confused, for the French army, this may mean that nearly half of the troops lost their combat effectiveness in a daze, but in Kang Gulu's view, all of this was Yuan Zizhang's calculation and arrangement.

They make it clear that they are bullying people, they are bullying you for lack of warm clothes and gunpowder. The more you lack, the more he will destroy the rest, leaving you to fend for yourself.

The whole battle revolved around clothing, food, and gunpowder. Now Kang Gulu not only admires Yuan Zizhang, but also admires the French general... If it was him, he would have been so angry that he would have put all his eggs in one basket and pushed the army up.

This kind of reaction is like a party with weak firepower in a local battle, usually forcing a volley of bird guns to launch a charge in advance.

It seemed that the enemy army on the west bank could hardly sit still, and rushed over to eat some wild vegetables to fill their stomachs, but the enemy army on the east bank was still calm and planned to camp far away.

"Three hundred is three hundred. I will leave you with three hundred heavy cavalry. I will take the rest and make trouble for them. They will not be allowed to camp before sunset. He will not dare to camp again after dark. The enemy troops on the east bank are forcing back, so don't worry, wait for me to come back and clean up the people on the west bank."

(End of this chapter)