Lord of the House

Vol 11 Chapter 117: bridge crossing

After day and night, Fancheng and the Qiaodu District in the south of the city were full of fires, illuminating the night as bright as day.

There are still hundreds of remnants in the city fighting stubbornly, but they have been divided into several blocks. Huang Zuyu moved from Dongcheng to Nancheng and stood on the Nancheng Tower, which is convenient to pay attention to the war in the city and Qiaodu District at the same time. The four gates are controlled, and the remaining hundreds of defenders are divided and surrounded...

At present, the defenders of Xiangyang on the south bank of the Han River cannot cross the river on a large scale to aid Fancheng, but they must completely control Fancheng and Qiaodu District before the enemy troops from Xinye and Nanyang arrive.

In the Qiaodu area, there were still more than 100 enemy troops defending the west base, and Huang Zuyu successively dispatched troops and horses to fill the bridge area.

Gao Hu came on horseback, walked up to the tower, and said: "There are young men in the Xicheng private camp who want to join the army. I think I can choose some people from there..."

Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin led the attack on Fancheng with only 5,000 troops, and by then there were as many as 700 or 800 casualties - reinforcements would arrive in three days at the earliest, and before that, the enemy in Xiangyang would not give up To retake Fancheng, the enemy troops in Xinye and Nanyang will arrive before nightfall tomorrow at the earliest, especially if they intend to use the pontoon bridge to contain the attention of the enemy, there is really a lack of manpower.

Yanhu transported grain from Hezhongfu to Jingzhou, and adopted the method of transporting grain by substations, with Luoyang and Ruyang as one station, Ruyang and Nanyang as one station, Nanyang and Fancheng as one station, and Fancheng as one station. Crossing the Han River to Xiangyang is one stop, Xiangyang to Jingmen is one stop, and the last stop is from Jingmen to the front line of Jingzhou - the advantage of segmented or sub-station transportation is that the transportation efficiency will be improved and the management of the people will become It is extremely effective. This was created by Fan Lan, the envoy of Xuanfu in Henan Province and the prefect of Hezhong. Gao Zongting, Song Fu and others also praised Fan Lan for his ability to govern, but it is a pity that he is Yan's slave.

In order to ensure that the grains arriving in Fancheng could be transported to Xiangyang on the south bank in time by ferry and shipped to Shicheng at Tiezhuan Wharf, Yanhu captured about 5,000 people in Fancheng, and set up large-scale private enterprises in Xicheng and Nancheng respectively. When Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin launched the sneak attack, these civilians had just returned to the private camp after a heavy day of hard labor.

After the war started, some riots were caused in the private sector, but after the Huaidong Army took control of the four gates of Fancheng, the riots in the private sector subsided. Although a considerable number of civilians fled in the chaos, more than 4,000 people were intercepted and temporarily concentrated in private camps.

Gao Hu felt that the people were all captured by Yan Huqiang, so he could win them over and help defend the city to make up for the lack of military strength.

Huang Zuyu looked at Deng Qiaoshan, the commander who joined the army beside him, and said: "Qiao Shan, you are responsible for this matter - the civilian husbands who are forced to accompany the army, like us, are from Haha, don't embarrass them. For those civilian husbands who want to return home. , all of them will distribute food as travel expenses in accordance with the regulations, and ask them to leave Fancheng immediately without delay. However, they must first be righteous and tell them that the 200,000 troops of the Huaidong Army are about to go north, and Yanhu's army in Jingxiang will not escape and be wiped out. Destiny, the expulsion of Yan Hu and the recovery of the Central Plains are just around the corner. The situation no longer allows Yan Hu and his lackeys to do evil in the Central Plains, and we must tell them that leaving Fancheng at this time is actually the same danger as staying in Fancheng... ...We welcome all those who are willing to stay and defend Fancheng with us, and they will all be regarded as Huaidong's reserve generals, and some of the policies of the Huaidong Army must be explained to them!"

Fancheng itself is Yanhu's logistics relay granary. Huang Zuyu and the others came over. Almost half of the 2,000 carriages were loaded with food for cover. It was also to prevent Fancheng's food from being transported by air, which could be used as a supply to defend Fancheng. Look, there is no pressure at all to distribute food as travel expenses.

Of the 2,000 carriages, half of them were loaded with weapons and armor.

At this time, the chariots of armored and war weapons first came to the city. In order to facilitate the control of Fancheng and the Qiaodu District in the south of the city, Huang Zuyu naturally focused on Nancheng.

The carriages loaded with war weapons stopped in Nancheng, and bundles of arrows, knives and guns bundled with hemp were moved out of the carriages.

The bed crossbows, scorpion crossbows, tip crossbows, and flying contradictory vehicles, which are urgently needed for the battle in front of them, are assembled on the spot on the long stone-paved street inside the South City Gate. Every time it is assembled, it is quickly sent to the front line soldiers who are fighting the enemy to enhance the attack power of the enemy.

Because the kerosene tank is light and thin, it is fragile when transported by land, and the oil tank is packaged separately. The kerosene is stored in a thick ceramic jar, packed in a wooden box, filled with straw as a buffer, and will be packaged into thin clay jars for use on the battlefield. to kill the enemy.

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Due to Chen Xi's unexpected departure from the city, the Huaidong Army will advance the sneak attack on Fancheng until tonight, otherwise it will spend the night quietly outside the city, and the generals will be equipped and the weapons will be assembled before launching the sneak attack. The war will not be thought of now. so hard.

Zhou Bin is in charge of commanding the battlefield in the Qiaodu District in the south of the city. The Qiaotou and Xilui have been blocked, and one battalion will be in charge of the battle. He is staring at the iron pile wharf. Although the Tiezhuan Wharf is low-lying, the number of enemy troops who entered the Tiezhuan Wharf with Xiangyang general Azige has accumulated to 2,000 people. Although Zhou Bin personally led three battalions of elite troops to suppress the Tiezhuan Wharf, the opponents they faced were all elites. They are the elites of Yan Hu's direct line, and they are veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time. They are tenacious and aggressive. They rely on the iron pile wharf, which is not a lot of advantageous terrain, and they play very tenaciously. There is some pressure to call Zhou Bin.

At this time, a group of people came from behind. Zhou Bin looked at Deng Qiaoshan, leading a dozen soldiers and more than a hundred civilians in ragged clothes. If you want to defend Fancheng, you must make good use of these civilians. Seeing that Deng Qiaoshan chose one so quickly Zhou Bin was not surprised by the support of the people here, but the six crossbows that came with Deng Qiaoshan made Zhou Bin very happy: "Grandma, with these good things, it will be much easier to beat these turtle grandchildren..."

Zhou Bin quickly arranged the six crossbows to a high position in the front position, blocking the intersection that rushed up from the iron pile wharf...

Maybe a bed crossbow can only shoot one or two people at a time, but the deterrent and deterrent power brought by the bed crossbow at the intersection is by no means the ability of ordinary crossbows. s reason.

The soldiers are all fully armored. As long as they are not shot in the face and the door, they will not even be seriously injured if they are charged with arrows. I can only pray that the long eye of the crossbow will not hit me.

The main area of ​​the iron pile wharf is on the river beach. From the river beach, there are stone steps of more than 200 steps. The terrain is not too dangerous. Therefore, Zhou Bin blocked it with crossbowmen. Azige can still organize armored soldiers to hold shields. Attack suppression is also very effective.

The bow and crossbow could not block the enemy from rushing in. Every time Zhou Bin returned to the end, he could only use the armored soldiers to fight with the enemy soldiers hand-to-hand in order to repel them.

Every time the enemy at the Iron Pile Dock is repulsed, there will be casualties on both sides. After all, the enemy soldiers are suppressing the attack. No matter how fierce the fighting spirit is, the Huaidong army is also fearless. When the second batch of Huaidong generals fills up, they all wear uniform armor, so every time they can exchange smaller casualties for larger enemy troops. casualties.

However, the enemy general Azige did not mean to give up the attack at all. Zhou Bin could understand his thoughts: the success or failure of Fancheng would be related to the victory or defeat of the entire Jingxiang battlefield. It was all exhausted, but as long as it caused heavy casualties that were irreparable in a short period of time to the Huaidong Army who came to sneak attack, it would also create favorable conditions for the subsequent reinforcements to retake Fancheng...

If this situation continued, Zhou Bin had to consider burning down the pontoon bridge and retreating to Fancheng.

Although the generals who attacked Fancheng with Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin this time, including Huang Zuyu, Zhou Bin and other generals, all wrapped their bodies in horse leather, the casualties were too heavy. If the enemy army from Nanyang came to Fancheng sooner than expected, Fancheng would have corpses. It may be gained and lost again, which is not good for the entire battle.

Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin wanted to control the attrition ratio of their generals and pawns. Sun Zhuang's reinforcements would be in three days at the earliest, and they might be able to isolate the enemy from Fancheng. , with a variety of variables:

The best result is to keep the pontoon bridge, and keep the enemy troops in Xiangyang at the bridge head, so that they are not willing to retreat, and they will not be able to fight. The main force of Ma came to join forces, and strive to annihilate most of the enemy troops that entered Jingxiang.

Obviously, the pontoon bridge is not lost. In the case where there is still hope to retake Fancheng, the enemy in Xiangyang will take the initiative to destroy the pontoon bridge and open the passage along the Han River westward, which requires great determination-once the enemy in Xiangyang will destroy the pontoon bridge. If he is determined, then he will definitely build a ferry at the upper reaches of the Han River at Baiyangguan or Danjiangkou, and establish a channel to communicate the north and south of the Han River. Although this passage cannot be compared with Jingxiang, the earlier and faster this passage is established, especially before the main force of the Huaidong Army has advanced to Xiangfan, whether Yanhu continues to walk from Guanzhong to Wuguan, Jingwu It is very beneficial for Guan and Danjiang to transport supplies to the south bank of Hanshui, or for the enemy troops on the south bank of Hanshui to cross the Hanshui from Xiangyang west to pass through Baiyangguan and Danjiangkou to retreat to Guanzhong.

If the pontoon bridge is not destroyed, the enemy generals in Xiangyang will become hesitant, and the main force will be placed on crossing the river to retake Fancheng, rather than immediately establishing a river crossing channel at Baiyangguan and Danjiangkou on the west and north banks of Xiangyang.

Once the main force of the Huaidong Army entered the Xiangfan area, it would be too late for the enemy to think of establishing a river crossing channel in the west of Xiangyang and Baiyangguan on the north bank. Although the time for the Huaidong Navy to enter the Xiangfan area is very slow, even if it is temporarily unable to compete with the Shejia Navy for control of the Han River, the main force of the Buying can go directly north, and take the land route from Xinye and Xichuan counties to Wuguan. The upper reaches of the river and Danjiang cut off the connection between Jingxiang, Yanhu soldiers and horses and Guanzhong.

How much victory Jingxiang can achieve in the first battle depends entirely on whether Fan Cheng's opening is well sealed.

Although Fancheng is the bottom of the entire Jingxiang area, the bottom of the cave is more than 200 miles wide from Zaoyang in the east to Baiyangguan and Danjiangkou in the west, and the two main arteries leading to Guanzhong and Henan pass through. Here - the battle situation of the Sealing War has changed greatly, and the requirements for the generals are extremely high.

General Huang Zuyu is the deputy commander of the army, and is the senior general who will be promoted to the commander by Lin Fu. The strength and toughness of the battle are better than most of the middle-level generals of the Huaidong Army; Zhou Bin has been in charge of military affairs for a long time, and is very familiar with the situation in the Jingxiang area. Cao Ziang decided that Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin would cooperate with the front to attack Fancheng first, and decided to use Sun Zhuang's troops as reinforcements to support Fancheng.

Sun Zhuang was very dissatisfied with this. Even after he led his troops to support Fancheng, the battle situation in Fancheng was under his command. He was also quite dissatisfied, but he had to obey Cao Zi'ang's arrangement-except for Sun Zhuang's grasp of the complicated battle situation in the early stage, which may not be comparable. On the cooperation between Huang Zuyu and Zhou Bin, the more important point is that the first attacking troops and horses in the front are disguised as grain-carrying teams, and the speed does not need to be too fast, while the second attacking troops must travel from the hinterland of Suizhou at an unbelievable speed. Crossing straight into Fancheng, you can't win without riding a battalion.

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The bed crossbow was pushed into the high ground of the front position, blocking the opening of the iron pile pier rushing upward. The enemy army obviously saw this change in the iron pile pier, and immediately withdrew a wave of strong attacks to discuss countermeasures.

Deng Qiaoshan stepped forward and looked at the iron pile pier.

The entire pier is mainly built on the river beach. In order to expand the traffic volume, a space of nearly 100 steps was dug to the north bank, making the whole iron pile pier four or five hundred steps deep. There are several rows of warehouses built on the outside of the wharf, which are used as the fortress of the wharf defenders and the temporary storage of goods and hard labor.

Because the iron pile wharf has existed for a long time, it was not temporarily built after the occupation of the Yan army. These warehouses are built by brick factories and are relatively strong. The main reason~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Deng Qiaoshan came over and said to Zhou Bin: "Huang Zhijun said, don't hit too hard all at once, leave some thoughts for the enemy!"

Zhou Bin smiled, since the bed crossbows are all assembled and delivered, the scorpion crossbows and the tip crossbows will be delivered soon.

The warehouse on the pier is a solid defense for the armored soldiers attacking with bare hands. When the enemy's will is not weak, it is difficult to attack by force, but although the scorpion crossbow and the tipped crossbow are not as good as the heavy catapult, they are twenty or thirty. The heavy stone bombs are still a sufficient threat to these warehouses.

As long as the opening of the enemy's rushing up is sealed and the enemy is suppressed on the pier below, the war will be much easier for this side. It's really not good. This time I came here with more than 10,000 catties of kerosene, which is enough to burn the warehouse outside the iron pile wharf, which may have a large amount of flammable goods!

Thinking of this, Zhou Bin said to Deng Qiaoshan: "There are two scorpion crossbows standing at the bridge head, no matter whether the bridge is destroyed or not, you must always be prepared; since the people are available, you will then bring your staff to dig a long trench in front of the east base... "

There is a distance of more than two miles from the south of the city to the iron pile wharf. The east fortress is very small, only a hundred steps square. Although it can block the enemy from the east from attacking the Qiaodu area, it cannot be completely blocked. Even if the enemy reinforcements from Nanyang came to Fancheng first and dug a long trench, they could only be asked to stay in the Qiaodu area outside the city for a day or two.

If the pontoon bridge is destroyed again at that time, the enemy generals in Xiangyang will be delayed by two days to build the river crossing channel between the west of Xiangyang and Baiyangguan and Danjiangkou on the north bank. By this time, the time of day will become very critical. If the enemy troops on the south bank of the Han River are called to retreat northward through Baiyang Pass earlier, it means that there will be two or three thousand more enemy troops in the line west of Zhechuan, Wuguan and Shangzhou, and the main force of the Huaidong Army will be increased. Xichuan cut off the resistance of Wuguan River and Danjiang River. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter

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