"Something is wrong!"

Wen Ruilin climbed the sentry post on the southern slope of Meitang Mountain, looked at the outer defense line of Shenjiaji where the Tangyi soldiers were three or four miles away, and saw Xu Mingzhen frowning, as if he also realized that today's Tangyi soldiers were different.

Even though there have been many confrontations before, the resilience of the party soldiers still amazed Wen Ruilin.

In just twenty or thirty days of this battle, the fence walls on the periphery of Shen Jiaji were broken for several rounds, but they were filled in again and again by Tangyi soldiers and soldiers transporting wood and stones from the rear.

The two sides continued to raid the past, destroying each other's whirlwind cannons and other weapons, and constantly creating new whirlwind cannons and other weapons, throwing tens of thousands of stone projectiles into the opponent's position.

Constantly breaking through the nearby rocks, almost all the stone tablets that can be collected on the left and right have been transported.

The shallow river channel of the Nanqishui River and the broken river ice were also full of broken wood and gravel at this time - in addition to the whirlwind cannon smashed by the Tangyi soldiers' position, more people were driven to clean up the passage in front of the formation, and a large number of broken stone bullets were pushed nearby.

In addition to attacking from the front, regardless of casualties, a small group of elites was sent into Huaiyang Mountain, although fighting with the Tangyi soldiers of the same scale, the casualties of the elite of the descendants who had followed the Xu family for many years were very large, but it fundamentally curbed Han Qian's pace of launching copycat forces and expanding troops.

The cold weather was very bad for them for a while.

Because of the heavy snow, in addition to freezing to death and frostbite, their attack on the front line of Wujin Ridge was delayed for more than 20 days.

In these more than 20 days, the Tangyi soldiers occupied nearly 50 villages in the main tributaries of the upper reaches of the Nanqishui River, obtained relatively sufficient supplies, and mobilized and recruited more than 4,000 strong people to serve as their consumables.

However, the cold weather was also beneficial to them.

On the one hand, the thawing of the streams and rivers on the eastern and northern slopes of Huaiyang Mountain has been delayed for about half a month compared with previous years, so that the warships of the Tangyi Navy can only roam in Chaohu Lake at present, and cannot approach Huaiyang Mountain along the Longtan River and other waterways.

On the other hand, there has not been much rain in Huaiyang Mountain since the beginning of winter, and the melting of ice and snow is much later than in previous years, so they do not have to worry about the change in the water potential of the streams and rivers.

If the fighting dragged on until April or May, a casual heavy rain would seriously affect their offensive from the lower river valleys.

And if the current rhythm continues, the defense line of the Tangyi soldiers in Wujinling does not look like it can hold out until April.

It's just that from this morning, the scouts confirmed that the Tangyi soldiers were responsible for controlling the small elite of the rear cottages, and they gathered at the Shen family one after another, and the generals of the Shouzhou army were inclined to think that the Tangyi soldiers might see that the confrontation could not be delayed, and planned to launch a large-scale attack.

However, the small elite forces drawn from the hinterland of Huaiyang Mountain on the opposite side did not fill in the defense line in front of the river valley, but concentrated on the gaps in the mountain crest on both wings, what happened?

Could it be that the generals of Tangyi thought that the steep ridges from the two flanks were more conducive to them to launch a counterattack?

At this time, beyond the mountain ridge of Wujin Ridge as high as 100 zhang, you can see a column of smoke rising in the depths of Huaiyang Mountain, which seems to be the continuous dry weather in early spring, which ignites the mountain fire in Huaiyang Mountain.

However, in such a dry weather, whether it is a small group of elites sent in, or the Tangyi soldiers in the mountains to encircle and suppress the soldiers and horses they sent in, using the dry wild grass and forest trees, it is quite simple to ignite mountain fires, but it is not everywhere?

It's a pity that when the scouts infiltrated Huaiyang Mountain, they wanted to climb the mountain and cross the mountain to pass through the blockade of the Tangyi soldiers to spread the news, but it was not so easy, and it took two or three days at the earliest.

Wen Ruilin's mind hung there, he couldn't be steady, followed Xu Mingzhen to the front camp position, and saw the Tangyi soldiers behind the defensive line, today's morale seemed to be stronger than in the past, which made him even more imaginative.

Xu Mingzhen summoned the generals and did a lot of precautionary and vigilant measures, but Wen Ruilin couldn't calm his mind.

After nightfall, the battle ahead was temporarily suspended, and not long after Wen Ruilin returned to the camp, Xu Mingzhen sent someone to invite.

He hurried over to Xu Mingzhen's tent and saw several scouts covered in blood and disguised as mountain people panting, telling Xu Yin and others who had arrived in front of him about what they had seen in Huaiyang Mountain today.

"The soldiers of Tangyi notified the military and civilians in the upper reaches of Nanqi River and along the Gaoyang River to evacuate today, saying that they wanted to prevent flooding, how is this possible?" Wen Ruilin listened to it and couldn't help but ask in shock, "Even if the Tangyi soldiers pile up firewood along the upstream stream and ignite the melting river ice, how much water can it cause?" ”

As the fierce fighting between the two sides lasted for many days, the Nanqishui River downstream of Shenjiaji was full of debris and debris, which would affect the discharge of the river, but the problem was that Huaiyang Mountain did not have much rain except for a few heavy snowfalls throughout the winter.

Although the water flow in the river is full of debris and debris, although it has never been broken, the flow of water has always been extremely shallow, which is enough to prove this.

And they have always been wary that Han Qian may build a dam in the mountains to store water, and in the past month, Xu Mingzhen has dismantled two or three thousand elite members into small units and sent them into Huaiyang Mountain, but no abnormalities have been found.

Han Daoxun, Han Qian, father and son, when they collected the infected and hungry people in Qiuhu Mountain, and when they ran Xuzhou, they were all very good at controlling water, which is an undoubted fact, but the problem is that in the past month, so many scouts and horses have entered Huaiyang Mountain, don't they even recognize a barrage?

If we don't build a dam to store water, even heavy rainstorms in summer and autumn will hardly have a devastating impact on the big buildings they are stationed in the river valleys, right?

Or is all this just Han Qian's suspicious tactic, is it that Han Qian saw that it was difficult for his generals to defend Wujin Ridge, and deliberately released false news, wanting them to mess with themselves so that they could delay the time when Wujin Ling was captured?

The Zuowu Guards are commanding Zhou Shu's leadership to fight through the gap between Tongbai Mountain and Huaiyang Mountain, Han Qian obviously wants to delay some time, so that Zhou Shu can lead his troops to fight deeper and force this side to withdraw troops to help, right?

This is also the only reasonable explanation that Wen Ruilin can think of.

Everyone was in Xu Mingzhen's tooth tent for a long time, and they couldn't figure out a clue, at the beginning of the day, the former battalion commander Xu Jin sent someone to report: "After the enemy's defense line, the general seems to hear the sound of river ice breaking and moving!" ”

"River ice breaking?" Wen Ruilin was taken aback, knowing that the temperature was warming, and the flowing water in the river was abundant, if the downstream encountered a cold blockage, it was possible to break the frozen cover on the river. It's just that before nightfall, he deliberately looked at the river on the west side of Meitang Mountain, and did not see the water rising under the ice, and he thought that the Tangyi soldiers were purely blind tossing and turning upstream, so they were suspicious.

"Let's go ahead and have a look

。 Xu Mingzhen said immediately.

Wen Ruilin, Xu Yin and others also followed Xu Mingzhen with one foot deep and one foot shallow, surrounded by the guards, regardless of the cold night wind howling, and rushed to the outpost formation.

The stars and moon are in the sky, but the line of sight is not far away.

Fortunately, Xu Jin, the main general in the front battle, was also worried that there was a problem, and heard from the scouts that there was a strange sound behind the Tangyi defense line, regardless of the darkness of the night, he gathered an elite army of soldiers and horses to launch an attack on the Tangyi defense line in the south, so that the scouts could get close to the outer fence of Shenjiaji and see the situation of the upstream river more clearly.

Xu Mingzhen, Wen Ruilin, and Xu Yin came over, and Xu Jin was about to scout and tell him: "There is a large amount of broken river ice coming downstream, and it is blocked by the fence wall in the river, as if it is piled ......up like a dam."

On the one hand, the fence wood that the Tangyi soldiers hit in the river was more southerly, and on the other hand, they did not think of attacking directly along the river, so the fence wall in the river of the Tangyi soldiers has not been damaged.

At this time, they did not expect that the Tangyi soldiers would use this fence to intercept the river ice floating upstream and pile it into an ice dam, and then use the ice dam to hold back the water.

"How high is the river ice piling up?" Xu Mingzhen asked with a frown.

"Less than two feet." Xu Jin replied.

Xu Mingzhen looked at one of the accompanying officials.

"The river valley within the Wujin Ridge is relatively deep and wide, as long as the sky does not suddenly rain heavily, even if the upstream river ice melts, it will not be able to accumulate much deep water, even if the fence wall stops the broken ice and forms a temporary dam, but the water level is raised by two feet, which is also the limit - not to mention that the ice dam is different from the earth-rock weir dam after all, a large amount of river water can still seep down, reducing the accumulation of upstream stream water." That official was Cao Zuo, a minister of the Jiedu Envoy, who was proficient in engineering and water conservancy, and was very familiar with the situation of the rivers and rivers in the upper reaches of the Nanqishui, and could roughly calculate the total amount of water accumulated by the Nanqishui in the upper reaches of the Wujin Ridge at this time.

You must know that throughout the winter, the water level of the Nanqishui River ice sheet is very shallow, and the ice sheet of most rivers is suspended.

Judging from the situation in front of him, no matter how Tang Yi soldiers look at it, it looks like they are bluffing.

Although their camp was mainly built on the river beach, they also took into account the fact that the river was swollen after the war dragged on until April or May, and not only were fences built around the front camp, but also berms were piled up on both sides of the river, and if the water level upstream was only raised by the ice dam by two or three feet, there would be nothing to worry about.

"Watch out!" Xu Mingzhen said.

At this time, it was already late at night, and he could only order the camps to strengthen their vigilance first, and ask Xu Jin to abandon some of the shallow and silly camps first.

Everyone stayed in front of the camp for an hour, confirming that the ice dam was not raised again, they breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that no matter how capable Han Qian was, without heavy rainfall, he would not be able to make the water in the upper reaches of the Nanqishui River rise as he wanted, and what they needed to worry more about at this time was the sudden change in the weather.

However, looking at the clear stars and moon tonight, it doesn't look like there is a sudden change in the wind and clouds.

And even if the berm is strengthened, it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Tossed until the early hours of the morning, Wen Ruilin went back to the camp tent to sleep, but he couldn't sleep well, he didn't fall asleep for more than an hour, and saw the morning light coming through the gap in the tent curtain, so he took warm water to wash up, and rushed to see Xu Mingzhen, only to know that Xu Mingzhen didn't rest long before returning to the camp, and ran to the front camp half an hour ago.

Wen Rui came out of the camp of the Chinese army, and saw that the generals of the front battalion were hurriedly moving to the highlands on both sides, and the camp was in chaos, he felt that the situation was not good, and hurried to Xu Jin's big tent, and saw Xu Mingzhen, Xu Jin, Xu Yin and other Shouzhou generals there, whose faces were bad, and looked like the sky was falling, and asked in shock: "What's wrong?" ”

"The river ice has accumulated more than five feet behind the fence wall of the Shen family...... Xu Yin said.

"How is that possible?" Wen Ruilin's face suddenly turned pale, his intuition was cold, and he asked in disbelief, eager for Xu Yin to tell him that it was just a joke.

He went back to sleep for just over an hour, how could such a change suddenly occur in more than an hour?

Could it be that Han Qian's true supernatural powers are vast enough to control the water potential in the upper reaches of the Nanqishui River at will?

And then there was no one in the tent who could answer his question.

The ice dam behind the fence has been piling up to more than five feet in the past hour, not to mention, and it has not stopped piling up.

And just before Wen Ruilin rushed over, Xu Jin had just sent an elite force to rush up the fence wall defended by the Tangyi soldiers, and saw that the ice dam was completely filled with water, as if a mountain lake appeared out of thin air, extending more than five or six miles upstream - that is to say, the Tangyi soldiers were completely beyond their imagination, and they controlled the inflow of water from the upstream with great precision.

At this time, the Tangyi soldiers were also pushing a piece of driftwood wrapped in iron thorns into the water, presumably to increase the impact on their side when the water flooded over.

Retreat?

The passage opened on the west side of Meitang Mountain is only six feet wide, even if they are given an extra day, how much can the more than 30,000 soldiers and more than 20,000 people gathered in the valley south of Meitang Mountain withdraw?

Not to mention tens of thousands of stone of war materiel.

…………

…………

The main tributary of the Nanqishui River in the south of Wujin Ridge is tortuous, and the flow speed of the water is not high in early spring, about 30 miles per hour, considering the depth and breadth of the inner river valley of Shenjiaji, to form an ice dam with sufficient impact on the enemy camp, the demolition and collection of the dark dam along the coast must be very accurate in time, but in fact it is difficult to achieve complete accuracy.

In any case, the existing technical conditions in the world could never make the enemy completely defenseless.

All efforts are made to shorten the reaction time of the enemy after arousing sufficient vigilance.

At about the moment when the morning sun emerged from the ridge to the east, the ice dam that had piled up more than seven feet high finally collapsed, and the muddy water carried the broken river like a galloping group of horses, carrying a piece of driftwood down the gap from the embankment.

Due to the accumulation of too much debris and debris in the river below, and the large amount of broken river ice was dumped directly into the river below, the icy water was forced to sweep away the enemy camps on both sides.

The fence walls built on the periphery of the enemy camp and the berms on both sides of the river were too thin, and the gaps were opened in a few clicks.

There was nearly two hours of reaction time, and most of the enemy's former battalion generals withdrew to the high ground on the left and right flanks, but this could not save the fate of the rout of the Shouzhou army.

Yuan Guowei climbed the eagle's beak cliff and borrowed a bronze telescope to see the panic in the enemy camp more clearly, a large number of abandoned baggage carts were washed down by the water, mules and horses struggled in the water, and countless supplies were swept by the water, rolling further downstream with the water.

Although the Meitang Mountain, which is four miles away from the Nanqishui River, is not as high as the Wujin Ridge on the south side, the river valley pass at the foot of the mountain is narrower, and a large number of debris, drowned mules and horses, and river ice cannot be washed down there, and it is quickly blocked again.

This will not only aggravate the flooding on the south side of Meitang Mountain, but will also completely eliminate the possibility of the rapid withdrawal of enemy troops from the pass on the west side of Meitang Mountain.

Of course, Han Qian would not be able to let the enemy calmly retreat across Meitang Mountain to the north, the passage in front of the river valley had been completely washed away by the flood, but the four thousand elites who had been deployed to the two flanks of Wujin Ridge since yesterday were mobilized at this time.

The northern slope of Wujin Ridge, the floodway formed by the rainwater impact and the low terrain before was piled up with rocks and trees, which was originally rugged and abnormal, and could only be climbed by mountain hunters or small groups of elite soldiers and horses, but the Shouzhou army in order to facilitate the multi-channel attack, cleaned up the rocks and trees for more than a month, and at this time it was convenient for the elite of Tangyi soldiers to attack down the dangerous slope.

Although the Shouzhou army also built some fortifications such as trenches, fence walls and enclosed houses on these floodways on the northern slope to prevent the Tangyi soldiers from counterattacking from these floodways, a large number of soldiers were crowded to the steep slopes on both flanks, and the confusion made the soldiers chaotic after these fortifications.

The army and the people cannot be organized in an orderly manner, and no matter how strong the city is, it is just a decoration, let alone a simple fortification?

The elite Tangyi soldiers who attacked down the steep slope, although they could only carry a small number of cumbersome bed crossbows and scorpion cannons, but the fire oil canisters and stone bullets were definitely not intensive, but the damage caused to the enemy and the chaos caused by the condescending were far greater than before.

There is no hope of stopping the expansion of chaos, let alone organizing soldiers to block the offensive launched by the condescending Tangyi soldiers, Xu Mingzhen, Xu Jin and others saw that the overall situation had gone, so they could only retreat to the southern slope of Meitang Mountain on horseback surrounded by guards.

Although this directly announced the rout of the soldiers and horses of the front battalion, for Xu Mingzhen, Xu Jin, Wen Ruilin and others, the more than 7,000 elite soldiers and 10,000 strong men in the front battalion must have a strong man to break his wrist and resolutely give up.

If you don't want the situation to completely collapse, how many of the more than 20,000 elite people in the battalion on the southern slope of Meitang Mountain can withdraw into Anfeng Village is the key to preserving the vitality of the Shouzhou army.

In the camp on the river beach, the water was more than three feet deep, and the broken river ice swirled.

Rushed to the southern slope of Meitang Mountain, Wen Ruilin was still soaked in the waist up, but the waist down was soaked in the water for most of the hour and was numb, and he couldn't help but tremble.

Although the southern slope is not as steep as the northern slope of Wujin Ridge, 30,000 or 40,000 horses have squeezed over, especially the generals tried to lead the war horses over the mountains and retreated northward, and people or military horses slipped and fell at every turn, bringing down a large area.

Wen Ruilin looked at the direction of the front camp without tears at this time, and saw that the Tangyi soldiers had been killed to the foot of the mountain, and drove countless generals and people directly into the icy muddy water, and then forced them to abandon their armor and wade through the water to concentrate on the fence wall in the south; There were not a few drowned, and countless corpses were floating in this direction.

The two Tangyi soldiers, along the edge of the foot of the mountain swirling in the muddy water, killed to the north, fortunately, the terrain was rugged, and there were trees and rebels to block, their speed of advance was not fast, but the soldiers along the line were in a mess, either surrendered, or fled to the more steep mountains on both wings, or maybe they were driven into the water like headless flies, struggling to squeeze to the trees to shelter, no one thought of organizing people to delay the speed of the advance of the two Tangyi soldiers.

"Xu Datou, Gu Tuzi, you take people to the foot of the mountain on both sides." Xu Mingzhen shouted.

Seeing that the southern slope of Meitang Mountain was in a mess, there was no ready-made road but people were fighting, it was not easy to sort it out, and it was necessary to arrange manpower to intercept the pursuers on both sides in order to gain more time.

The terrain on both sides is steep, as long as there are three or five hundred elite armor soldiers who can stabilize their positions regardless of their bodies, it will not be a problem to delay for three or five hours.

Xu Mingzhen has been guarding the border for many years, and there is no shortage of brave generals around him, and the two generals who were named immediately came out of the ranks, with more than a dozen guards, and walked to the foot of the mountain on both sides, while pulling out more daring armor soldiers from the mess.

After that, Xu Mingzhen arranged his subordinates and guards to go out to sort out the chaos on the southern slope of Meitang Mountain, pushed the mules and carriages down the valley, and suppressed the chaotic soldiers and people, so that the order was not so chaotic.

Wen Ruilin finally followed Xu Mingzhen and others to climb to the top of Meitang Mountain, and at this time he saw that the narrow estuary on the west side of Meitang Mountain was blocked by a large number of mule and horse corpses, baggage and debris, and river ice, forming a precarious ice dam again, making the river valley two or three miles wide and four miles long in the south of Meitang Mountain into a muddy mountain lake mixed with floating corpses and river ice.

Of course, most of the simple barracks that are not high in themselves are still exposed to the water, and a large number of mules and horses are still standing in the cold muddy water, which shows that the flooding is not very deep, but the blow to the Shouzhou army is deadly enough.

The only fortunate thing is that the flank front flank organization of soldiers and horses to intercept is quite effective, the rugged terrain makes it difficult for the Tangyi soldiers to pass, and it is impossible to carry heavy weapons over, and the narrow terrain makes both sides unable to spread the formation, and there is a stalemate for a while.

The ice dam on the west side of Meitang Mountain collapsed in less than two hours, and the turbid water carried a large number of corpses, baggage and debris and river ice poured downstream.

Wen Ruilin was about to groan in pain, as he expected, a large number of corpses, baggage, debris, and ice floes were pushed by the water and did not last long, blocking the river again and silting up the water level, forcing the turbid water to carry the ice floes to flood to both sides.

The road on the south side of Meitang Mountain is also not high, and a large number of people and horses who retreated south were drowned on the road, watching the water flood, and once again panicked to the two wings of the steep mountains to dodge.

Perhaps the Tangyi soldiers also noticed that after the ice dam of Meitang Mountain collapsed, the water level of the river south of Meitang Mountain quickly stabilized, and Wen Ruilin soon saw dozens of oars and boats killing along the river, in addition to the murderous armor soldiers, there were also bed crossbows, scorpion cannons and other combat weapons.

"The road to the south is not flooded, evacuate!"

Wen Ruilin turned his head and saw Xu Yin urging Xu Mingzhen not to insist any longer, he thought to himself that if the silt below was washed away by the water again, the Tangyi soldiers might take a boat to go around in front of them and establish an interception position.

There is another one, now there is a mess everywhere, and it is inconvenient to communicate, if the Tangyi soldiers go around in front of them, and the Anfeng Village is in a mess to accept the rout soldiers without defense, and the elite of the Tangyi soldiers who have been bypassed take advantage of the chaos to seize the village, then they are really even more desperate......