On 7 October, more than 2,000 sentinels and horses of the Chuzhou army crossed the Fanchuan River first, set up a cordon, and drove the able-bodied men to cut down trees, build fences, and widen the passage from the dense forests and swamps to the west.

On the third day, that is, in the early morning of October 9, the cold white mist rolled over the woods and swamps, and the left and right were like a fairyland.

Before today, everyone thought that the Liang army, which was at an absolute disadvantage in terms of troops, would use the dense forests and swamps on the east bank of the Fanchuan River to defend, but they did not expect that the Liang army would take the initiative to kill.

The outpost camp established by the Chuzhou army on the river beach on the west bank of the Fanchuan River soon noticed the movement of the Liang army, and the horn sounded whirring.

A group of soldiers put on armor and held bright swords, spears, bows and shields, or climbed the fence wall, or went out of the camp, formed a formation in front of the fence, and after repelling obstacles such as horses and antlers, they used shield spears to build a seemingly impregnable line of defense.

The outpost camp was built on a river flat, with the calm and cold water of the river in the background.

The beach between the river and the woods is narrow, and the reeds are burned in advance.

After the winter, the Fanchuan River also shrank quite shallow and narrow, leaving winding river flats on both sides, the narrowest part is only twenty or thirty steps, and the widest part is less than three or four hundred steps deep.

The outpost camp of the Chuzhou army was built on a relatively open river beach, but almost the front end was close to the dense forest west of the river beach.

I didn't expect the Liang army to counterattack as soon as possible, and the single-story fence wall of the outpost camp was quite thin.

However, as the first sentinel to advance to the west bank of the Fanchuan River, they were naturally the elite of the Chuzhou army, and they did not panic in the face of several groups of Liang troops counterattacking.

The sentinels had infantry and cavalry, and the infantry formed a formation inside and outside the fence, while several groups of cavalry galloped out of the humble camp and assembled on both flanks.

Unfortunately, the river flats on the west bank of the Fanchuan River are still too narrow, and in some places they seem to be empty, but they are full of soft, muddy, and unfooted swamps.

In the past two days, thousands of people were driven west to cut down trees, but how much space could be opened up in such a short period of time before the river flats?

This made the formation of the sentinels and horses of the Chuzhou army, on the one hand, very crowded, with more than 100 or even 300 or even 3400 people crowded on a small piece of high ground; On the other hand, the highlands that can be formed in the river beach are relatively scattered, and there are only thin passages between them, and they are also located in the edge area where the river beach and the dense forest meet, which are easy to be cut off.

Of course, the forward generals of the Chuzhou army did not have too many worries in their hearts, in their opinion, the narrow and complex terrain on the west bank had more restrictions on the Liang army's counteroffensive.

Several narrow forest paths, they have been blocked with fences at narrow intersections, Liang Jun can disperse from the dense forests with complex terrain, what other attack power can they have?

The forward generals of the Chuzhou army even believed that the Liang army was only a feint attack with loud thunder and little rain, and they mainly focused their defense on the exits of several forest roads, believing that as long as these openings were blocked, the Liang army's counteroffensive would soon cease to fall.

Cao Ba and Li Qi each drove their elite troops to attack, but in fact, the elite of the two battalions set off first, with the squad as the combat unit, dispersed through the dense forest, and then found a suitable open area in front of the enemy's outpost camp and then assembled.

The strongest part of the Liang soldiers and horses is that they are divided into squads of twenty or thirty people, and they still have the ability to fight and act independently, and their adaptability to jungle operations is much stronger than the Chuzhou generals imagined.

Swamps and shallow streams in the middle of the dense forests are also obstacles, but they are easier to pass through than the dense forests between the rugged mountains.

Otherwise, from the forward camp to the river beach on the west bank of the Fanchuan River, the dense forests and swamp belts of seven or eight miles will become insurmountable.

At noon, dozens of small groups of Liang troops bypassed the key blockades at several intersections, drilled out of the dense forest, and engaged the enemy with bows and crossbows.

The outpost generals of the Chuzhou Army hastily adjusted their deployments and dispatched troops, thinking of dividing and eliminating the Liang army that had scattered and infiltrated.

For the Liang army in the squad, if it can be gathered, it will gather, and if it can't be gathered, it will be in the edge area of the dense forest and the river beach, and fight with the Chuzhou army guerrilla, and contain as many sentinels and horses as possible of the Chuzhou army, so that the follow-up reinforcements will continue to kill the river beach, and will not easily take a small group of men and horses to fight with the enemy army that is several times or even more than ten times their own.

The sentinels of the Chuzhou army may be said to be elite, armor and equipment, general training, combat experience, morale, and will may not be weak, compared with the Liang army, each aspect may only be slightly worse, but each aspect is slightly worse, all aspects are added together, the gap is not one or two points.

More importantly, the sentinels of the Chuzhou army, who entered the west bank of the Fanchuan River, were far from expecting that the Liang army's counterattack would be so early and so resolute, and the preparations were extremely inadequate.

First of all, due to the influence of the complex topography of the river flats, after the marginal areas near the dense forests and relatively easy to pass were infiltrated and cut off by the Liang army on a large scale, the Chuzhou army assembled in the dry highlands in the depths of the river flats found that they had not built the passages connecting the various formations in time in the depths of the river flats, and were even separated by the low-lying areas and river bay terrain that were waterlogged, making it difficult to quickly mobilize and assemble.

On the other hand, the sentinels and horses of the Chuzhou Army had not yet transported the bed crossbow and other weapons from the east bank in time at this time.

They had thought that they would not be able to use these weapons until the soldiers advanced to the Liang army's defensive forts.

As more and more Liang troops came out of the dense forest, gathering into a group of hundreds or even two or three hundred, the formation became tight, and the soldiers became sharp, so they tried to leave the edge of the dense forest and kill deep into the river beach where the enemy army was arrayed.

The Chuzhou army soon could not bear the heavy casualties of the scattered operations, abandoned the outer heights, and waded into the water to retreat to the narrow camp.

The Chuzhou army shrank back to the camp, and thought about killing it after resting, but as more and more Liang troops came out of the dense forest, they soon found themselves suppressed in the camp and no longer had the ability to kill them.

After several forest bypasses were opened, dozens of spring-arm crossbows were dragged from the muddy sidewalks to the edge of the riverbank and dense forest.

Iron crossbow arrows like short spears easily shot through the thin fence wall.

The outpost camp is divided into three fence camps on the left, middle and right, and there are seven hundred along the Fanchuan River in the north and south

It was many steps long, but only two hundred steps deep in the east-west direction, and the scorpion crossbow was dragged in front of the fence, and the oil tank could attack any corner of the camp.

At this time, the sentinels and horses of the Chuzhou army who entered the west bank could no longer resist and hastily withdrew from the two simple pontoon bridges to the east bank.

The Chuzhou army's camp on the east bank of the Fanchuan River should be more open - after all, since the beginning of September, the Chuzhou army has ignored the repeated protests of the Liang army and entered the buffer zone on the east bank in advance to prepare for war, and the camp built after a month is also much stronger, with a double fence wall filled with earth in the middle, and a layer of logs on top of it, so that the soldiers can stand on the fence to defend the battle - there are more soldiers and horses, enough for 5,000 men and horses.

There are more Chuzhou troops on the east bank, but the camps on the west bank are too narrow and simple, and the generals are suppressed in the camps and cannot be killed, even if there are two pontoon bridges connecting the two banks, no matter how many troops on the east bank there are, there is no way to reinforce the west bank.

I don't want the narrow outpost camp on the west bank to become a slaughtering ground for strangling the generals of the Chuzhou army, so I can only withdraw all the men and horses first.

The forward generals of the Chuzhou army, at this time, still did not feel that the early defeat was a big deal, and they still wanted to use the camp built on the east bank according to the river to revive the declining situation.

At dusk, Cao Ba personally rushed to the camp on the river beach, except for the corpses in one place, the fire in the camp had just been extinguished, and there was a burning smell around it.

The two pontoon bridges were still on the slow-flowing Fanchuan River, and the enemy generals did not take the initiative to destroy the two pontoon bridges, but on the other side of the two pontoon bridges, a large number of shield carts and horses were piled up to prevent this side from directly rushing over by the pontoon bridges.

It is clear that the enemy general still wants to use these two pontoon bridges to attack the east bank again.

"Burn the pontoon!" Cao Ba ordered.

"The pawns will rest all night, and tomorrow we will be able to cross the river with these two pontoons, how can we burn them?" Today, the general who led the team to capture the enemy outpost camp on the river beach was anxious and shouted at Cao Ba.

The enemy village on the west bank is almost built near the water, and it will be extremely difficult to rebuild the pontoon bridge from the west bank to the east bank before the enemy village, who is willing to set fire to the two existing pontoon bridges?

"Wait until tomorrow to cross the river? Zhou Bao and Dong Jiang and their two teams of men and horses would disperse from the north to swim across the Fanchuan River at night, and then pass through the forest in the northeast on the opposite bank to intercept the enemy's retreat on the east bank from behind. In the next three days, we will eat this enemy army on the east coast, and let the monarchs and ministers of Chu State taste the consequences of tearing up the peace negotiation first! ”

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War is always an all-round confrontation and contest of the comprehensive strength of the two sides.

Although the drills, morale, and combat experience of the generals are extremely important, they are only a convenience, and sophisticated and comprehensive equipment, as well as sufficient and effective logistical supply and rapid road and bridge construction capabilities, are all key factors that determine the trend of the battle situation and cannot be ignored.

The tightly glued waterproof combat boots are an important guarantee for passing through the waterlogged dense forest in cold seasons.

Although the Jianghuai region has not yet reached the cold season, when the frost rises in the middle of the night, the gentle banks of the rivers and rivers begin to form thin ice. At this time, the shoes and socks were filled with ice-cold water, and my legs were paralyzed by the biting cold, which was definitely not a good feeling.

Although the north mouth of the Fanchuan River connecting Hongzepu was blocked by the Chuzhou army, and the large and medium-sized warships of the navy could not come in to support, the floating rafts and shuttle-shaped light warships used by the navy could even penetrate from shallow waters a few feet deep.

These shallow waters are the remnants of small streams in the dense forests that are not valued by the Chuzhou army, and even fishing boats cannot pass smoothly; At the same time, these pontoon rafts and shuttle-shaped warships can quickly loop into pontoon bridges hundreds of paces or even tens of miles long.

The Chuzhou army didn't feel anything, because the Chuzhou army had never been the center of gravity of the Liang army's defense and attack, and the deployment of the southern front was not the most elite combat force of the Great Liang.

However, since Han Qian ordered the formation of a special Zhouqiao unit, in order to overcome the difficulties of soldiers and horses passing through the floodplain on both sides of Yingshui and harassing the depths of the Liang army in the east, the Liang army has accumulated a lot of combat experience in these aspects, and has also built a number of special combat weapons.

If necessary, it is even possible to lay two or three floating channels across the Fanchuan River in a short period of time, and through the dense forests and swampy areas on both banks.

The Liang army took the initiative to burn the pontoon bridge, and the Chuzhou army on the west bank of course thought that the Liang army was weak-minded, thinking that the Liang army was afraid of their strong forces, and the main combat intention of the Liang army, which was at an absolute disadvantage, was to hold the line of the Fanchuan River.

Winding river channels, dense woods, and swamps also provided excellent cover, and the Chuzhou army on the west bank was completely oblivious to the fact that only twenty miles to the north of them, a Liang army crossed the Fanchuan River by fire.

In the early morning of the next day, 2,000 Liang soldiers and horses crossed the Fanchuan River, and through the dense forest, and went around to the back of the Chuzhou army on the west bank, and its forward generals realized the determination of the Liang army to annihilate it on the west bank of the Fanchuan River!

The Chuzhou army still had nearly 10,000 foot soldiers stationed in Dongyang County, and after discovering that the passage between Dongyang City and the Fanchuan River was cut off at the first time, it quickly dispatched a large number of troops and horses, wanting to attack the forward soldiers and horses on the west bank of the Fanchuan River and annihilate the Liang army that was interspersed in.

However, until the afternoon, Cao Ba and Li Qi took the lead and defeated the Chuzhou army on the east bank of the Fanchuan River with nearly 7,000 forward soldiers and horses, and Zhou Bao and Dong Jiang led more than 2,000 Liang troops like a rock, stuck the passage from Dongyang City to the Fanchuan River.

Nearly 8,000 soldiers and horses were killed from Dongyang City, and they attacked for most of the day, but they were always blocked in the east, and they could not advance half an inch, let alone meet with their forward soldiers and horses on the east bank of the Fanchuan River.

Although the Chuzhou army had to enter a full-scale war mobilization a month ahead of schedule, without the direct support of the Chuting center, the materials they could use were still too scarce.

From Dongyang City to the bank of the Fanchuan River, the Chuzhou army only built a road of more than 20 miles, and beyond the avenue were abandoned villages, dense forests, and fields washed away by floods, making the Dongyangcheng County area east of the Fanchuan River, the Chuzhou army obviously had an absolute advantage in strength, but it could not be deployed.

Occasionally, the Chuzhou army had small groups of soldiers and horses trying to bypass from both sides of the avenue, but they were scattered, and they were not the elite opponents of the Liang army, and they were killed and defeated.

After the Wuzhi dam was dug up and the Yuhe River returned to its original course, the flood situation in Hongzepu and the surrounding areas this summer and autumn was much more moderate than in previous years, but the heavy floods for seven or eight consecutive years had already destroyed the territory of Dongyang County.

Choosing to send troops from Dongyang County and crossing the Fanchuan River to invade Shiliang County was the most fatal mistake Yang Yuanyan made; Of course, the deeper reason is that Yang Yuanyan did not expect that the Liang army was so overstretched, and he would fight back as soon as possible.

The Chuzhou army did not cross the Liang army at all

Fan Chuanhe counterattacked and made a due plan.

After Cao Ba and Li Qi led their troops to kill the Fanchuan River, Yang Yuanyan personally led 8,000 cavalry and stayed in the south of Gaoyou County on the east bank of Fanliang Lake.

As predicted by Zhao Wuji and Cao Ba, he even waited for the battle on both sides of the Fanchuan River to enter a stalemate, and directly led his cavalry to bypass the south side of Fanliang Lake, and together with the Yangzhou garrison, quickly attacked Tangyi and the southern area of Shiliang County.

He didn't expect that the soldiers and horses deployed in Fanchuan River and Dongyang City would be so vulnerable, and when he saw that the situation was not right, he led the cavalry to retreat to Dongyang County, and its forward soldiers and horses on the east bank of the Fanchuan River had been destroyed, and Cao Ba and Li Qi were reorganizing their troops and horses and wanted to advance to Dongyang County.

Yang Yuanyan also made a quick decision, and after meeting with the remnants of Dongyang County, he collided with the main force of the Liang army, and the two sides fought together in the lakes, ditches, and the Pingchuan area crisscrossed by dense forests.

The battlefield almost covered nearly twenty miles west of Dongyang County, and the battle broke out from dusk and lasted until the moonlight and starry night.

Yang Yuanyan originally thought that the Liang army had been fighting for a day, and he would inevitably be tired and sleepy, so he had the intention to take advantage of the chaos to win.

At dusk, Zhao Wuji personally entered the west bank of the Fanchuan River to supervise the battle.

The entire battlefield seemed chaotic, but the tens of thousands of cavalry actually fought closely around the passage opened by the Chuzhou army from Dongyang City to the west bank of the Fanchuan River.

More than 200 spring-arm bed crossbows were loaded on the light chariots, and they were mainly distributed along this passage, forming seven chariot formations.

When the enemy is strong, the infantry on both wings shrinks back, and uses the strong crossbow to shoot the enemy army that pursues and bites head-on, effectively destroying and inflicting heavy damage on the enemy; The enemy army was weak, but the infantry cavalry took advantage of the chaos to cover up and kill, but the core direction was to advance to Dongyang City, an important town connecting Chuyang and Yangzhou, and the enemy did not dare to abandon lightly......

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On the afternoon of the 11th, Zhao Wuji ordered the troops to be withdrawn and withdrawn to the west bank of the Fanchuan River.

The troops are still seriously insufficient, and there is no way to besiege Dongyang City and completely annihilate the remnants of the Chuzhou army.

"It's a pity. I finally found a haystack in the early hours of this morning, and I could squint for a while, and for a moment I suddenly thought that if we were to kill under the city of Chuzhou, thousands of athletes would shout 'Kill Chuzhou City and capture Yang Yuanyan alive' What a happy thing! I woke up with joy immediately, but it didn't take two hours to chase the north today, so I withdrew my troops directly? Do you say that Deputy Zhao made his order a bit nonsense, is it possible that at this time, he is still afraid that the Chu army on the south bank will have the courage to cross the river and copy our back road? ”

Commanding the generals to retreat, the generals below and the operational staff officers were responsible, Cao Ba rode a jujube red horse, and Feng Yi and Wen Ruilin, who followed the army to watch the battle, complained that Zhao Wuji ordered to retreat at this time was too fucked.

"Jun sent an edict, the priority is to ensure that Liang Chu is not prematurely entered into a full-scale decisive battle, Lord Gao and Lord Yang have also repeatedly emphasized this," Wen Ruilin said, "At present, the intention of attacking the enemy army has been achieved, Deputy Envoy Zhao decisively ordered to retreat, is to lock the existing results, and after the northern front recovers Jinnan, the first and second central camp troops can get out, General Cao is still afraid that there will be no war?" ”

"Lao Cao, I'm so easy to be fooled by you?" Cao Ba grinned and said, "Those soft eggs in the Chu State may have been a little eager to try before yesterday, but now, I'm afraid that if we ask the Empress Dowager Changxin to warm the bed for you, they will all have to hand it over...... Hey, this is a good idea, directly ask the Empress Dowager Changxin to warm the bed for you, some are too shameless, but if Jinling sends someone over to ask for the resumption of peace talks, you will ask the Empress Dowager Changxin to come and talk in person - the Empress Dowager will definitely remember your good in the future! ”

Feng Yi and Wen Ruilin both laughed.

"What are you discussing?"

Zhao Wuji rode over with Ye Feiying surrounded by several horsemen, he was also worried that Cao Ba would be upset about the withdrawal of troops at this time, and wanted to come over to appease him a few words, but he saw Feng Yi, Wen Ruilin and Cao Ba laughing with their eyebrows, and asked curiously.

Cao Ba squeezed his eyebrows, Feng Yi and Wen Ruilin knew that Zhao Wuji was the king's brother-in-law, so such a bad idea naturally couldn't be combined with him......

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Ruan Yan trembled and asked people to help him climb the west tower of Dongyang City, as if he had been poured a basin of cold ice water from head to toe, looking at the scene in front of him, his hands and feet trembled.

At this time, the wilderness more than 20 miles deep between the east of the Fanchuan River and Dongyang City was full of corpses, broken bows and halberds, fleeing war horses, and destroyed or abandoned chariots and war weapons.

The Liang army did not clean up the battlefield, but only transported the corpses of their own soldiers who died in battle, and the others were abandoned on the battlefield, and even the armor of the Chuzhou army that died in the battle was disdained to be taken away, and it did not have the intention of building a camp east of the Fanchuan River and not leaving at all, as if it was completely like Feng Yi's previous claim on behalf of Liang Guo, this battle was purely to counter the attack of the Chuzhou army.

Zhang Xian, surrounded by several horsemen, rushed to Dongyang City, and saw the remnants of the city full of gray faces, their legs and feet were straight and weak, and their hands were supporting the cold city wall, and it took a while to barely climb the city tower, but when he stood on top of the city tower and saw the wolf outside the city, he was exhausted.

Nearly 30,000 elite Chuzhou troops were killed like this by the Liang army in their early 10,000s in less than three days?

Yang Zhitang was inconvenient to show his head at this time, and the prince Yang Fan was also the assassin of Runzhou, so it was inconvenient to go directly to the north bank to contact Yang Yuanyan, so Zhang Xian was responsible for mediating the coordination of the Yangzhou garrison and the Chuzhou army as a guest of the Shouwang Mansion.

When the Liang army killed the Fanchuan River, he was with Geng Jinglian, the envoy of Yangzhou soldiers and horses, to prepare for the dispatch of troops, but he did not expect that the Chuzhou army, which they had high hopes for, was so easily killed on the east bank of the Fanchuan River.

"What about His Royal Highness?" Zhang Xian couldn't control his hands and feet from trembling, but his voice was still trembling when he asked Ruan Yan.

Ruan Yan is really old, his lips tremble and he can't speak clearly, or the person next to him explained, Zhang Xian knew that Yang Yuanyan wanted to personally lead the silver halberd guard to kill the Liang army's handsome banner in the early morning, but before he could rush closer, he was sniped by dozens of Liang army's long-range crossbows, wearing two layers of heavy armor but falling off his horse with more than a dozen arrows, and was snatched back to Dongyang City by the cavalry, and the injury was only stabilized at this time.

If Yang Yuanyan hadn't been shot off the horse so early, he might not have lost so badly.

Yang Yuan's acting power is infinite, he wore multiple layers of heavy armor in his early years and charged into battle, and the number of enemy soldiers who died under his halberd is unknown, Zhang Xian has long heard of his martial bravery, but he didn't expect him to be shot off his horse so easily by Liang Jun this time?