Lord of the House

Vol 11 Chapter 86: stalking

(6,000-character chapter, asking for a red ticket)

Lin Tie was in Yuzhang, and the deadline for Huang Binghao to accept the negotiated conditions was mid-August.

Zhang Xiongshan led the vanguard of 3,000 soldiers and horses, and was intercepted by more than 600 Huaidong elite cavalry in the west of Xinyu City. When the news reached Xiayuan, Huang Binghao and the others only regarded them as the troops sent from Yuzhang to Yuanzhou to urge the surrender, and did not feel any other abnormality.

When sending troops to Xinyu, Huang Binghao still wanted to keep the bottom line and not torn his face with Huaidong, but learned that more than 600 cavalry from Huaidong also marched towards Xinyu, and wanted to block Yuanzhou's troops and horses outside Xinyu City, his name was actually Huang Binghao. There is no other option.

If it were not for the world to laugh at the fact that Yuanzhou's 30,000 soldiers and horses had frightened the 600 soldiers of Huaidong, Huang Binghao would have to bite the bullet and tell Zhang Xiongshan to drive away or annihilate the 600 soldiers of Huaidong and invade Xinyu City.

Although Xiayuan's side was optimistic about expelling or annihilating the more than 600 cavalry soldiers from Huaidong entering Xinyu, Chen Zishou led the central army without stopping and accelerated the march to Xinyu, but Zhang Xiongshan, who was really facing the enemy, felt completely different.

The scouts detected the traces of the six hundred cavalry soldiers in Huaidong, in the south of Yangle County, at the west foot of Shiziling in Moshan, and more than 70 miles away from Xinyu City; Yucheng is about 30 miles away, but it is only more than 50 miles away from the western foot of Shiziling Mountain in Moshan—such a wide range of scouts is enough to show how cautious Huang Binghao, Chen Zishou and others are about sending troops to Xinyu.

Zhang Xiongshan's 3,000 soldiers were originally Huang Binghao's guard soldiers and horses. They were old soldiers brought out by Huang Binghao when he was the prefect of Jiangzhou. At first, Chen Zishou was the general. By Zhang Xiongshan, he was the third general and the school officials. They are all trusted confidants of Huang Binghao.

Over the years, this army has eliminated the weak and retained the strong, and is Huang Binghao's most trusted elite army. Although there are not many people, whether it is Poyang to suppress the bandits or to defend Jiangzhou, they have made brilliant achievements, and their money and military rations are also better than other soldiers. After Huang Binghao took over the defense of Yuanzhou and the war against Tanzhou, in order to make up for the army, a large number of Ding Zhuang were recruited from Yuanzhou to join the army, but the Weiying were all children of Huang Binghao's clan or fellow countrymen.

Huang Binghao would not be willing to ask Zhang Xiongshan to lead his battalion as the vanguard if it wasn't for the sake of ensuring that he would be foolproof in conquering Xinyu.

All the cavalry in Yuanzhou's army added up to no more than a thousand people, and almost all of them were concentrated in the guard camp.

Zhang Xiongshan was worried that the Huaidong Army would advance to Xinyu and hold the city for help, so he assembled a thousand cavalry, and personally led the team to Xinyu first, to seize the opportunity, and asked the remaining 2,000 infantry to rush later. Come.

When Zhang Xiongshan led the cavalry first, the sun was slanting westward, and the setting sun shrouded the mountains on both sides, as if covered with a layer of purple haze. Horses hoofs galloping, galloping in the valley, as if a storm was hitting the rocks, and when the sky was about to get dark, it hit the west of Waixinyu City.

In a hurry, half of Zhang Xiongshan’s face covered by his beard was a little gray. Looking at the dilapidated city head of Xinyu, the city gate had long ago gone, only the empty city gate hole was left, like an open beast in the twilight. mouth.

Zhang Xiongshan came with his cavalry, and three or five men in short green jackets and linen shoes rushed out to greet him.

"Tian Xiu, is there anything unusual in Xinyu City?" Zhang Xiongshan restrained his horse and asked the man in the lead.

After the Battle of Shangrao, Huang Binghao feared that the Huaidong Army would advance westward along the Yuanshui River and abandon Xinyu, which had relatively open terrain, and retreated to the west of Xiayuancheng, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Although Huang Binghao did not send troops and horses in Xinyu, there were always a large number of eyeliners deployed inside and outside Xinyu city to keep abreast of Huaidong's latest developments in Xinyu. To be honest, he was afraid that the Huaidong Army would send troops and horses to Xinyu first.

Tian Xiu was the head of the Yuanzhou army in Xinyu. He had smallpox in his early years, his face was full of pits, he was wearing a short jacket, and he had a waist knife around his waist. He walked up to Zhang Xiongshan and saluted him. He said: "I heard that General Xiongshan came, and the city was in chaos, nothing unusual, but Xiaozhushan's horse exploration saw that two or three hundred cavalry from Huaidong were approaching the north of Xiatanggou, wading across the river! "

Huang Binghao gave up Xinyu and did not defend, and even demolished the gates of the four cities of Xinyu before abandoning the defense. However, Xinyu has not been devastated by war in these years, and there are many people in the city, and they have not escaped much.

After May, Lin Fu did not rush to send troops and horses westward along the Yuan River in Yuzhang, but sent people into Yuanzhou to recruit surrender. On the one hand, Huang Binghao also responded positively. On the other hand, quite a lot of people believed that Huang Binghao would succumb to Huaidong's force and choose to surrender. Therefore, the people of Xinyu did not flee to their hometowns on a large scale to avoid the war.

At this time, the major shareholders of Yuanzhou's army and horses entered, and naturally the people of Xinyu were in chaos.

Zhang Xiongshan knew that Huaidong wouldn't have no eyeliner in Xinyu City, but as long as it didn't cause serious harm, he didn't bother to care about them. What Zhang Xiongshan cared about at this time was the more than 600 cavalry soldiers from Huaidong who came from the north.

Xiaozhu Mountain is located in the north of Xinyu City. Xiatanggou is a stream that originates from Xiaozhushan, and it is only ten kilometers away from Xinyu City.

"Go to Xiatanggou!" Zhang Xiongshan was not in a hurry to enter the city, but restrained the reins, drove his horse through an arc, and the dust rose as he stepped on it, and commanded more than a thousand cavalry along the northwest corner of the remnant city of Xinyu to the north. Xiaozhushan, who was in front of him, rushed to meet the Huaidong soldiers and horses coming from the south.

For Zhang Xiongshan, it is not enough to enter Xinyu City first.

The terrain around Xinyu is open. If they lead their troops into Xinyu City and call more than 600 Huaidong elite cavalry, they will circle to the west of Xinyu City and go around the hilly area between Mengshan Mountain and Qiqiangling, which will delay the main force of the Chinese army under Chen Zishou. Westward speed.

Zhang Xiongshan still did not mean that Yuzhang knew about their plan to invade Xinyu as early as the day before yesterday, and he still believed that the six or seven hundred cavalry that appeared in the north of Xinyu were a small group of soldiers and horses sent by Huaidong to Yuanzhou to promote the surrender. He believed that even if this group of soldiers and horses sent people back to Yuzhang to report the news, the main force of Huaidong's cavalry in Yuzhang would not be able to arrive at Xinyu until two days at the earliest.

This means that the main force of the Chinese army led by Chen Zishou must enter Xinyu City within two days, deploy the Xinyu line of defense, and also to the north of Xinyu, Xiaozhu Mountain and the east of Xinyu, Yuanshui. Build defenses downstream, so that the initiative in the war can be grasped in your hands.

Zhang Xiongshan led the main force of the cavalry to the north to Xiaozhushan to meet the Huaidong cavalry, but left Tian Ji and his lieutenant Liu Yaoqi 200 soldiers and horses to take over Xinyu City. Entering Xinyu City, and the main force of Chen Zishou's Chinese army will be delayed for a day on the road, and will arrive in Xinyu City by noon tomorrow.

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Chen Daozi restrained the horse, the reins hung tightly, the horse neighed, and kicked heavily against the rocks in the shallow water, splashing a large canopy of water.

After walking three hundred miles in two days and one night, even a brave man like him was somewhat tired. He got off the horse, the reins still in his hands, his face dipped in the cool stream, he took a sip, and then he undid his trousers belt, took out a murky bird and stood by the stream to untie it, shouting refreshingly.

Surrounded by three hundred cavalry, they scattered along the north bank of the stream to the left and right, without Chen Daozi's instructions, those who explored the waterway and searched for heights to scout the enemy's situation also acted independently, and the others dismounted to rest and eat.

Seeing that there were several heads of people on the stone cliffs on the North Ridge of Xiaozhu Mountain, the people who were still interested in guarding the ridge and staring here must be the scouts sent by the Yuanzhou Army. Chen Daozi pointed at the whip with a whip in his hand, and sent dozens of them to rush over to besiege him.

He led the troops first, and one of his duties was to clear and isolate the scouts deployed by the Yuanzhou Army around Xinyu along the way, and completely blinded the eyes of Huang Binghao and Chen Zishou in the periphery, so as to cover the whereabouts of Huaidong's main force.

The detective rider in front came back from wading into the water, restrained his horse in front of Chen Daozi, and said, "More than a thousand enemies have already rode to the foot of Xinyu City, but two or three hundred people are left behind, and about eight hundred other riders are coming here. …”

Although there were only more than 300 cavalry here, when they heard that there were 800 or 900 enemy cavalry coming to meet the enemy, everyone around them was very excited. .

Chen Daozi spat, scolded everyone, and said: "Fuck, Yuanzhou army bet all the capital, if you call the bet, you are stupid. Send someone to tell Zhao Bao, we will take the enemy. If we ride to the west, he can go around if he can; if he can't go around, he will come with the tail of the enemy soldiers to pack with us!"

There were more than 600 cavalry in the front, with Chen Daozi and Zhao Bao as generals, and they were divided into two teams at the southwestern foot of Mount Mo. One team was led by Chen Daozi, put on new horses, and galloped to Xiatanggou to meet the enemy. Zhao Bao led the remaining team, in addition to one rider and one rider, he had to restrain twice as many horses, fall behind, and travel a little slower. .

Neither can the main force of the Yuanzhou army enter the city, nor can the main force of the Yuanzhou army be alerted, abandon Xinyu without taking it, and flee to Xiayuan when the main force of the Huaidong army arrives - this fact is somewhat difficult.

Following the enemy's vanguard, Zhang Xiongshan was the first to drive Zhang Xiongshan to the outside of Xinyu City. The soldiers and horses had 3,000 cavalry, and they were quite capable of fighting. If a defensive formation was established along the Xiatang Valley in the north of Xinyu City and the west foot of Xiaozhu Mountain to cover Chen Zishou's lead The main force of the Chinese army entered Xinyu, and Chen Daozi and Zhao Bao could only bite the bullet and cross Xiatanggou.

However, it is clear that Zhang Xiongshan has 3,000 elite soldiers in his hands, among which the number of cavalry is not small. Seeing that the Huaidong Army has only entered the territory of Xinyu with more than 600 cavalry, how can he honestly defend the north wing of Xinyu City?

Zhang Xiongshan led the cavalry to take the initiative to fight, which was exactly what Chen Daozi intended. Chen Daozi looked up and saw that the twilight was all around, and the pale moonlight had already floated up in the eastern sky. He waved his whip and said to the surrounding generals: "This night is just a night battle."

****************

Chen Daozi led his team to the west along the Xiatanggou, and Zhang Xiongshan chased westward, across the Xiatanggou, sparse forests and hills, and was reluctant to leave.

At this time, even if he knew that another team of more than 300 cavalrymen in Huaidong took the opportunity to circle from the foot of Xiaozhu Mountain to the foot of Xinyu City, Zhang Xiongshan didn't care.

The other 2,000 cavalry he led were also approaching Xinyu City. In addition, there were nearly 200 cavalry left in Xinyu City. Zhang Xiongshan didn't have to worry that the more than 2,000 cavalry would be unable to stop the 300-odd Huaidong. cavalry.

Chen Daozi led his team to counterattack the Yuanzhou cavalry who were chasing after Zuowei after dark.

It is only the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, when the light clouds cover the sky, the bright moon shines like water, and the mountains, rivers and valleys are all over the place.

Seeing that he could not catch up with the enemy soldiers, Zhang Xiongshan had already led his troops back to Xinyu when he saw that it was getting dark. Riding at night between streams and valleys, one can only walk in small steps. If the horse gallops, it is easy to break the horse's hoofs on the uneven terrain. In order to protect the hard-won horses, some soldiers even dismount to lead them. Horses go.

Chen Daozi led more than 300 cavalry, and at this time, at the other end of Xiatanggou, between the hills at the eastern foot of Mengshan Qiqiangling, they rolled back.

Hearing the sound of horses' hooves approaching, he came from the sparse forest at night. Before Zhang Xiongshan could react, dozens of arrows shot "swish, swish". An arrow was shot from the seat under Zhang Xiongshan's right eye, pierced through the skull, and another arrow hit Zhang Xiongshan's shoulder armor and fell with a bang. The mount was paralyzed to the ground, Zhang Xiongshan took off his spear, jumped aside, changed his horse, and ordered the left and right soldiers and horses to gather around to resist the night attack of the Huaidong Army.

However, Huaidong's dozens of cavalry had shot arrows, and after seeing the array of Yan decorations, they immediately dispersed into the forest. Zhang Xiongshan led his troops to chase after him, and dozens of cavalrymen on each of the two flanks of the forest came out to intercept them.

Zhang Xiongshan had to retreat to the stream, and use the moonlight to align the array on the slightly flat beach by the stream.

Yuanzhou cavalry, walking along the road at night, will not have any difficulty, but walking at night between mountains, rivers, forests, valleys and fields without ready-made roads is definitely not good at it.

Speaking of which, there is still a lack of training.

Jiangxi does not produce horses, and the horse breeds imported from Guangnan and East Sichuan are all dwarf llamas. Over the years, Huang Binghao has chosen some tall horses from camel horses for riding.

Horses are so precious, and the cavalry's night field training especially hurts the horses. If he accidentally knocked his hoof, a good war horse was completely abolished and could no longer be ridden. He couldn't even ride a horse. How could Huang Binghao be willing to train at such a cost? He didn't have the resources either.

Although Zhang Xiongshan has a rough character, he is not a fool. Seeing the Huaidong cavalry attacking and retreating from the mountains and forests so quickly and orderly by the faint moonlight, he knows that the Yuanzhou cavalry he led is the elite, but it is not the same as Huaidong. The elite of the cavalry is far from a grade.

The night battle between the mountains and Sichuan was definitely not successful. Zhang Xiongshan ordered some of them to give up riding, and the formation marched on the outside of the cavalry with swords, shields, bows and crossbows to resist the harassment of the Huaidong cavalry. As long as it is delayed until dawn, the gap between the soldiers of the two armies will be reduced, and they will be able to regain the initiative by relying on more soldiers.

In addition, in Zhang Xiongshan's opinion, as long as the night is passed, the main force of the Chinese army under Chen Zishou's army will be able to march under Xinyu City, and if they can defend the city, they will not be afraid that Huaidong's main force of foot and cavalry in Yuzhang will arrive two days later.

From the moon to the mid-heaven, to the dawn of dawn, the Huaidong cavalry, although small in number, occupied the main force in night battles, entering and exiting from the mountains and forests, from the shallow streams, and from the hills and ravines, and harassed Zhang Xiongshan's troops. The harassment has been carried out six times, each time three or fifty cavalry attacked in batches, but after dawn, the Huaidong cavalry suddenly withdrew.

At dawn, the sky was twilight, and the morning light shrouded the mountains. Seeing the withdrawal of the Huaidong cavalry, Zhang Xiongshan sent people to reconnaissance the terrain, only to find that they were fighting and walking all night, and they had reached the Chitugang area at the foot of Mengshan Mountain, about 30 miles west of Xinyu City.

There is a stream in the south of Chitugang, and Zhang Xiongshan doesn't know the name of the stream. Looking at the map, crossing the stream is the road they walked to Xinyu yesterday. He rode his horse to the stream and saw more than a dozen corpses lying messily by the stream.

Looking at the scattered horses' hoofs around, it seems that a few soldiers and horses of the vanguard and infantry were lured here at night to besiege them.

After crossing the shallow stream, a dozen or so remnants fled here. Seeing a small infantry school under his command, Zhang Xiongshan called him to ask about the situation in Xinyu and the Chinese army led by Chen Zishou.

"Captain Cao Teng was ordered by the general to lead 2,000 infantry to Xinyu urgently, but there was still more than ten li from the city, and more than 300 enemy cavalry rushed to the front. It was dark at that time, and the gorge was narrow. , And the general did not know where he went, and saw that there were heavy armor hidden in the enemy's cavalry, and the attack was very sharp, Cao Xiaowei asked everyone to stop and form an array, and told me to lead a team of infantry to attack and drive out the enemy. Enemy cavalry attacking from the flank. Our division was cut off by the cavalry, so we couldn't join with Colonel Cao at night, so we went west, not wanting to go here and meet the general."

"Shit eater!" Zhang Xiongshan scolded, riding more than 2,000 paces, only called Huaidong's more than 300 horses to drag an inch, and it was only more than ten miles away from Xinyu City and could not enter, this face was thrown into the sky. .

Zhang Xiongshan didn't care about anything else. While sending someone to Chen Zishou, who was parked thirty miles to the west, he led his troops to the south road and rushed to meet the 2,000 infantrymen before entering Xinyu City.

It was also because Zhang Xiongshan, a dozen generals and nearly a thousand cavalrymen were exhausted, and the horses couldn't bear it. In order to save horsepower, Zhang Xiongshan and his generals all dismounted and walked on foot. Before they walked up the road to Xinyu City, they heard shouts of killing from both sides, and a horse and horse rushed out from the valley and the woods to kill in the middle.

Looking at the scale of the soldiers that were killed, it turned out that the more than 600 Huaidong cavalrymen who entered Xinyu first would all gather here!

Zhang Xiongshan couldn't help being a little flustered in his heart. He didn't expect that the Huaidong cavalry disappeared after the withdrawal before dawn, and they rushed here to meet and set up an ambush. Zhang Xiongshan stepped on his horse and held a spear in his hand. The Huaidong cavalry attacked him in the middle. He could only divide his troops to meet them.

Although Zhang Xiongshan's subordinates had not slept all day and night, the Huaidong cavalry who came from Yuzhang would only work harder and more tired than them. But the more extreme the situation, the more it can reflect the combat power of the generals.

Nearly a thousand Yuanzhou cavalrymen were ambushed by the waist, and they were caught off guard. They were a little flustered and rushed to attack from both flanks. The formation was not organized, the chaos was not smoothed out, and many people did not even open their bows and crossbows, so they called Huaidong Cavalry Generals. The first arrow rained over.

Seeing that the formation was very scattered, and the troops no longer had a big advantage, Zhang Xiongshan knew that it would be difficult to win, and regardless of the scattered flanks, he massacred the Huaidong Army, that is, he beat his horse and led his troops to flee to the road, so that the two armies would be pulled together. Open the distance, and then adjust the shape.

Zhang Xiongshan's tactics were not wrong at all. Except for his cavalry, the first infantry was more than 20 miles to the east, and the main force of the Chinese army led by Chen Zishou was only 30 miles away from them. Maybe Tian Yiming was here. Get out of camp and get closer to them.

As they galloped up the road, going east to west, there were a large group of infantrymen joining their side. Naturally, it was impossible to ask the Huaidong Army to completely defeat and annihilate the few hundred remaining cavalry in the shallow valley.

************

Watching Zhang Xiongshan lead hundreds of cavalry and horses to flee south, Chen Daozi held the saber, and could only slash and kill the random enemies around him. Drive nearly two miles away.

"Master Leopard can lead the main force of the cavalry camp to arrive at noon. Chen Zishou is completely oblivious. After dawn, he pulls out the camp and moves eastward. It is already twenty miles away. It seems that it is not good for us to chase Zhang Xiongshan." Zhao Bao and Chen Daozi said, "It's better to let Zhang Xiongshan go. Let's fight the 2,000 infantry outside Xinyu City first, and then we can ask Zhang Xiongshan and Chen Zishou to rendezvous and rush to the rescue!"

"Alright!" Chen Daozi didn't talk much nonsense, so he split up with Zhao Baobing and headed eastward from between the hills and mountains.

There were two thousand infantrymen in Yuanzhou parked on the main road twelve or three miles west of Xinyu City, and Chen Daozi and Zhao Bao led cavalry to entangle them. Of course, the two thousand Yuanzhou troops were Huang Binghao's guards, and their combat strength was not weak. In addition, the regiment was united, the defense was strong, and the soldiers, armor, bow and crossbow were also complete. They shrunk like a turtle. There is no chance for a mouthful.

Chen Daozi and Zhao Bao were not in a hurry. They just tried their best to monitor the two thousand Yuanzhou troops, while monitoring the progress of the main force of the Yuanzhou army led by Chen Zishou. More importantly, they blocked the communication in the north to cover the advance of the main force of the cavalry led by Zhou Pu. The enemy soldiers must not detect in advance.

************

Zhang Xiongshan first met with Chen Zishou, and scolded Chen Zishou with blood.

With an absolute superior force, he was careless, causing more than 600 Huaidong cavalry to damage their nearly 500 men and horses, and beat the rest of the cavalry into disarray. Zhang Xiongshan did not have the face to complain to Chen Zishou.

I learned that this Huaidong cavalry had rushed to the west of Xinyu City again, and entangled his 2,000 infantry outside Xinyu City. Seeing the situation, it was intentional to eat the 2,000 infantry before the main force of their central army rushed out. , Zhang Xiongshan was so angry that he had never been so contemptuous of the enemy in his life.

Chen Zishou was secretly surprised by this Huaidong cavalry with 600 men entangled outside Xinyu City and did not retreat.

From Chen Zishou and Zhang Xiongshan's point of view, Huaidong will send the information back to Yuzhang City, and then dispatch the main cavalry troops from Yuzhang to fight in Xinyu. Even if the cavalry go first, at least they should arrive at Xinyu after dark tomorrow. Yu; and as long as they drive the Huaidong cavalry away, and enter the remnant city of Xinyu before it gets dark tomorrow, they will be in control of the initiative.

"Who will lead the cavalry in Huaidong, or who will Huaidong send to Yuanzhou to preside over the surrender?" Chen Zishou and Zhang Xiongshan went to the roadside to discuss the military situation in order not to interfere with the march of the army. Six hundred cavalry to stop our army of 30,000 rushing into Xinyu before it gets dark tomorrow is really bold!"

The main force of the Chinese army was less than forty miles away from Xinyu City, so they could enter Xinyu City in time for today, but the fight was so useless last night that Zhang Xiongshan felt depressed.

Zhang Xiongshan immediately asked Chen Zishou to allow him to lead his troops to Xinyu first, where they would meet with the 2,000 soldiers in front, and clear the passage into Xinyu City.

Zhang Xiongshan still had 600 cavalry under his command. Although they were terrified by the killing, they still had the strength to fight. Furthermore, from Chitugang to the east, the terrain was relatively open, and the foot and cavalry marched in chaos. There is a chance to be ambushed.

Chen Zishou dispatched another 2,000 foot soldiers and Zhang Xiongshan's 600-odd cavalry to attack the Huaidong cavalry, and he urged the main force of the Chinese army to move eastward quickly.

At this time, Chen Zishou neglected the chaotic battle in the north of Xinyu City last night, and had already wiped out the scouts they had deployed in the north of Xinyu. Without scouts in the north, Chen Zishou could not have known that a Huaidong cavalry force composed of more than 3,000 people, all of them on horses, had left the south bank of Jinshui, entered the foothills of Mount Moshan, and rushed all the way to Xinyu. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter

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