Qin Official

In the early morning of the first day of April, after a day's march, the Southern Expeditionary Army had arrived at Jin Township, ten miles east of Jiangling, and occupied the deserted township to set up camp (today's Shashi District, Jingzhou City), together with Feng Wuze's army stationed outside Ying County. They were facing each other from a distance, seven or eight miles apart.

Decades ago, after the Qin State took control of Jianghan, the original Ying capital of the Chu State was divided into two. The Chu Palace in the northeast was called Ying County, and the residential area in the southwest was called Jiangling County. Jiangling, while the Nanjun lieutenants were stationed in Ying County, where the city was higher and easier to defend than to attack.

Let's put it this way: if Jiangling is the teeth, Yingxian is the lips, and if the lips die, the teeth will be cold.

Both sides had traveled more than ten days. From far away, their soldiers were exhausted and did not dare to engage in battle rashly. The commanders on both sides knew that this battle was a decisive battle, so they were very cautious and only sent scouts and cavalry to continuously test and engage. .

The decisive battle was about to begin, but Hei Fu was walking around the fields outside Jinxiang Town with his hands behind his back like an old farmer, sighing.

"Wherever the army passes, thorns will grow. This sacred land may turn into a ghostly place filled with corpses."

He still remembered what he saw when he came to Jiangling as an official more than ten years ago: as Xia Road went south, the number of pedestrians on Tu Road gradually increased. There were traders going south and north, garrison soldiers serving corvee, unkempt prisoners, and footsteps. There is an endless stream of hurried clerks, and sometimes they even have to move to the left side of the road to pass.

This area is also on the banks of the Yunmeng and Dajiang rivers. The weather has warmed up. The rice fields on the roadside stretch as far as the eye can see. In the distance, there are hundreds of farmers and officials scattered in the fields, driving their cattle to plow the fields. …

But now, seeing that war is about to begin in their homeland, the people in Ying County and Jin Township have all run away, either to Jiangling or to Yunmeng. Many of the millet seedlings that have just sprouted in the fields have been trampled and fell down.

It was impossible for Heifu to order the army not to trample on the young crops. There were more than 20,000 people in the area. They needed to form a wide enough formation to compete with the enemy.

The same goes for Feng Wuzejun on the opposite side. Most of them were also standing in the paddy field.

What is growing in the ground now is an army with bright armor, arranged as neatly as radishes. It is the copper and iron crops in their hands that have shown their sharpness and are shining brightly in the sun, only waiting for the nourishment of blood to water them!

After looking around and observing the terrain of the battlefield, Heifu confirmed to Wu Chen again:

"Today is April 1st, right?"

"It's the first day of April." Wu Chen glanced at the mark he recorded on the calendar and nodded affirmatively.

"That's good..."

Hei Fu nodded and looked at the rolling Yangtze River more than ten meters south of the battlefield, thoughtfully.

It was still early, and the land was already illuminated by the bright sun, but the river and Yunmengze were still shrouded in thick fog.

After Heifu waited for a while, several riders rushed out of the river mist, came to the car, and reported to him...

"about there."

Heifu breathed a sigh of relief, returned to the chariot, and gave instructions: "Send a few people to call for formation between the two armies!"

Dozens of cavalry roared out from Heifu's army formation. After several confrontations between the scouts from both sides, at the default dividing line, they all held simple trumpets made of copper and shouted loudly:

“There were traitorous ministers and rebellious sons in the court, who robbed the First Emperor, chased out the virtuous sons, massacred loyal ministers and righteous men, and brought chaos to the court. In the temples, rotten wood was used as officials, and in the palaces, animals were eating their salaries. The taxes in Kyushu were heavy, there were many corvees, and the people were suffering. The pain of hanging upside down.”

"Today the emperor has lost his first emperor, and everyone is suddenly saddened. However, his majesty was killed by his rebellious son Hu Hai, traitor Li Si, and Zhao Gao. He ordered the imperial physician to order Xia Wu to hide his clothes and carry secret edicts, leaving behind the loyal marquis to raise troops to quell the situation."

"Now Marquis Wu Zhong wants to restore Jiangling, and orders Jianghan to go north to fight against traitors. As a minister of the First Emperor, he upholds morality, acts with loyalty, and cherishes integrity. The three generations of Feng family are loyal and loyal. They should help the country. How can they help the traitors? , conspired to usurp the throne? I hope that Marquis Wu Xin will know his way back and not be deceived by traitors and make a big mistake. You and I, Wu Xin and Wu Zhong, will work together to uphold the righteousness!"

…

"This rebellious traitor still dares to call himself 'loyal'?"

Listening to the shouting from the opposite side, Feng Wuze was extremely angry.

He knew that Hei Fu wanted to confirm the fact that "the First Emperor had died" in order to disrupt the morale of his own army.

What a clumsy plan!

But there are still imitations. Many people in Guanzhong felt that Fusu suddenly ran away, Meng Tian was imprisoned, the court sent troops to suppress the Southern Expedition, and Wu Zhonghou first died and then resurrected to cause chaos...

Over the past few months, what happened has been a blur. The public said that the public was justified and the mother-in-law said that the mother-in-law was right, and ordinary soldiers were also a little scared and at a loss.

However, under the strict suppression of the Qin army's laws, everyone could only grit their teeth and stick to their posts. After all, they were the elites recruited by the Guanzhong Weiwei and Lieutenant armies. Even if they had doubts in their hearts, there was no problem in holding on to their positions. Everything was waiting for the fight. Let’s talk after the battle is over.

After Feng Wuze was angry, he thought about it. The reason why Heifu did this psychological attack was simply because he was in a weak position...

At present, Hei Fu has about six to seven hundred chariots, more than a thousand cavalry, and twenty-five thousand soldiers under his command.

On Feng Wuze's side, there were thousands of chariots, more than 2,000 riders, and 20,000 soldiers. Just looking at the numbers, there was almost no difference between the two sides.

There is no way, the one who can make a profit in a hundred miles will defeat the general, and the one who can make a profit in fifty miles will be half way. When he originally set out from Anlu, Feng Wuze still had 30,000 followers, but he dropped 10,000 in the counties along the way. Just in time to deal with the thousands of people sent by Heifu to attack the county and township.

In terms of combat effectiveness on paper, Feng Wuze still had the upper hand. On Heifu's side, except for the thousands of elite soldiers, the rest were either veterans who had been farming for two years in the Wuchang camp, or new recruits from Anlu Qingzhuang.

At this time, Yang Xiong, who was waiting for Commander Sin in the army, suggested: "General, if he wants to mess up the morale of our army, I can also mess with the morale of his army!"

Therefore, Feng Wuze also followed suit and asked people to call for war.

"The traitor, the black man, takes the name of military loyalty in vain, but is actually a traitor."

"Fake your own death to deceive the emperor, to deceive the people of the world, with ulterior motives."

"The three tribes of the Bi clan are planning to rebel. If they rebel against the enemy, they will behead their dogs and they will be rewarded with a thousand gold coins!"

But their scouts didn't have copper trumpets. They got a little closer, and before they could shout a few words, they were shot to death by the opponent's crossbow. Only the horse ran back.

Hei Fu sent someone over to apologize, saying that his troops made a "mistake", but declared war justly:

"Since Marquis Wu Xin insists on having his own way, you and I can only hunt here. How about making the two armies play in front of the formation at a quarter of noon tomorrow?"

"There will be a battle tomorrow?"

After receiving this formal letter of challenge, Feng Wuze immediately made a judgment: "Hei Fu is deliberately delaying!"

The captains of the capital were puzzled: "Although our army has abandoned its baggage, it is backed by Yingxian and Jiangling, has reinforcements from the city, and has endless food. However, their army can only have food for a few days at most. Once they run out, they will only be able to survive." Why did he want to drag us back to Huarong County? Could it be that he saw that the situation was not good and wanted to run away? "

Feng Wuze shook his head: "The two armies are too close, he can't escape, or he is waiting for the situation to change."

The captains were puzzled: "Where are the variables?"

At this moment, a scout came to report: "General, there is a rebel army of two to three thousand people appearing more than ten miles north of Xia Dao! It is the same person who harassed Jingling before and blocked our rear army's supplies!"

Feng Wuze smiled: "So, Heifu is counting on the rebels who have gone deep into the counties of Nanjun to come for help..."

Even so, Feng Wuze still felt a little uneasy in his heart.

Changsha County, still no news!

But as a general, you should not hesitate. He made a decision immediately: "Ask the guards from Jiangling and Ying counties to mobilize three thousand people and form an array on the north bank of Yangshui River to protect my flanks and prevent the rebel reinforcements from crossing the water to attack!"

Then, Feng Wuze asked people to wave his flag, with the flag pointing directly to the east!

"You don't have to wait until noon tomorrow, go forward in formation now and fight the traitors decisively!"

Feng Wuze believed that he had completely defeated Hei Fu's trick of seducing people in the east and attacking in the west.

Xiakou's boat division has been sent to rescue Zhu City. They don't expect to defeat Heifu's more than 10,000 partial troops, but at least they can block the waterway and delay it for a while.

As long as Heifu's main force is eliminated here, or even he himself is captured, and then he marches eastward and sweeps across the south of the Yangtze River, this great rebellion will gradually subside...

Following Feng Wuze's order, more than 10,000 people in the front line formed a square formation, with shields in front, crossbows in the middle, and spears and halberds in the back.

They formed a formation and marched slowly eastward to the sound of war drums. The chariots and horses rattled and the armor of the soldiers rattled. The soldiers under the command of Marquis Wu Xin stepped on the ravines and acres of millet fields, leaving the knot. The Heifu army in defense is getting closer and closer!

"Your Majesty?" It was the first time for Wu Chen to participate in such a large-scale battle. He was inevitably a little nervous. Seeing the "dark clouds" on the opposite side getting closer and closer to five miles away, Wu Chen couldn't help but swallow his saliva.

As for the Southern Expeditionary Army, except for thousands of elites, their mouths were dry with saliva, and they could hardly hold the spear shafts in their hands. They had never experienced such a big scene...

Whether it's Wuchang or Anlu, they use the crowd to dominate the weak, rely on black men to create miracles, and win smooth battles.

But can this battle, a 50/50 battle with the Guanzhong Army, be won?

Heifu was not completely sure either. He stood up straight in the car, not only looking at the approaching enemy troops and calculating their distance, but also looking at the densely populated large city Jiangling ten miles behind them...

After gazing for a long time, when I saw a beacon smoke rising over the city as the agreed signal, my face finally changed from solemn to relieved.

"Han Xin is here!"

…

"Marquis Wu Xin, look behind you! Jiangling!"

Feng Wu chose his place, and the military officer in charge of "watching the sun" also loudly reminded him to pay attention.

The old general turned his head and saw a huge column of smoke rising from Jiangling City. Judging from the location, it must be in the Linjiang area...

Now he knew where his uneasiness came from! For a moment, he threw a whip and cursed:

"Li You mistook me, Li You mistook me! Linxiang must have been lost, and the Changsha County rebels are heading north!"

At this time, Prince Cheng of the Marquis of Changwu, who was ordered to stay in Jiangling, also sent someone to ask for help:

"General Feng, there are tens of thousands of rebels taking advantage of the early morning fog to come upstream from the river by boat. They have broken through the navy's defense line and are attacking Jiangling!"

The already nervous Qin soldiers discovered that there was a fire in the rear and there was some commotion in the array. Before Feng Wuze could respond, Heifu, who had been quarreling all day long and kept saying "there will be a battle tomorrow at noon", had already ordered a counterattack. Order!

The cannon cavalry was the first to go out, holding bronze trumpets and leading the soldiers forward while shouting loudly:

"Jiang Ling has switched sides anyway!"

"The Southern Expedition Army's 100,000 troops have arrived!"

…

ps: Chapter 2 is at night

.. m.