The military situation is urgent, and Li Cunqiao is simply not allowed to make too many arrangements.

When the order was issued, Li Shaorong immediately led his subordinates to board the ship and cooperate with the Jin army to attack the defense line of the Wu army.

The large ships on the Wu side were blocked by the upstream iron cables and could not be reached, so only small boats carried sailors around the battlefield to fight.

In addition, the blockade of the river on the side of Yang Liu Nancheng also needs to leave some troops, so the troops on the side of Liujiacun are not too much, and there is no absolute advantage in the face of the Jin army.

What's more, the situation has reached the most critical time for the Jin army at this time, when they crossed the river to the south, their purpose was to rescue the friendly army, but now their goal is to save their own lives.

If they can't repel the blockade of the enemy's naval forces, then the army will be trapped and killed on the south bank of the river.

Under the persecution of this desperate situation, in order to open up a way of life, the soldiers of the Jin army can be said to be fighting to the death, Li Shaorong regained his former courage at this time, and personally led his troops to attack, and the soldiers under his command fought to the death and moved forward bravely.

Finally, half an hour later, Wu's navy was slightly repulsed, and the road to Hebei was barely opened.

Although the warships of the Wu army were not far away at this time, and the arrows they shot could still threaten the boats crossing the river, Li Cunqiao could not care so much, and the operation of crossing the river began immediately.

At the same time, Shi Jingjiao and Zhao Zaili have also led their soldiers to wait for battle.

In just over half an hour, they had dug a trench, cut down trees, and piled them up in front of the formation, which served as a makeshift breastwork to provide some cover for the soldiers hiding in the rear.

Of course, the more important point is to boost morale, if the army has no fighting spirit, then even if there is a strong city here, it is difficult to hold on; On the other hand, if the morale of the soldiers is high, then even if they are on flat ground and engage the enemy, they will still be able to build on it.

This was especially important for the Jin army at this time.

First, the Jin army had just lost the battle, its morale was low, and the army's morale was fluctuating; Second, and more importantly, the army is about to cross the river, and staying at this time is like sending it to death.

When his friendly troops have already taken the boat and started to cross the river to go home, but he still has to stay and fight with the enemy, in this case, it would be good if the soldiers did not rebel, can they still be expected to resist resolutely?

Therefore, it is extremely important to appease the morale of the military.

Fortunately, Li Cunmiao had expected this, and he said to the soldiers who stayed behind to be responsible for the break: "Soldiers, our army has lost the southward operation this time, and now it has reached the most critical juncture. Not far behind us is the big river, where there are enough boats, as long as you can board the boats, there is hope to return to Hebei safely, but you who stay behind may die. ”

As soon as Li Cunmiao's words began, the soldiers were in a commotion, only to hear him then say loudly: "Unfortunately, you are the ones who will stay behind and break off!" Fend off the enemy and buy time for the army to cross the river, that's your job. Do you think you've been abandoned? ”

At this moment, not only the ordinary soldiers were in an uproar, but even those officers and generals were also in an uproar.

Shi Jingjiao and Zhao Zaili frowned even more, not knowing why Li Cunqiao said this.

After all, most of the people present are veterans of the war for many years, and everyone knows the danger of staying and breaking off, but there is no need to say it so directly, right?

Well, the soldiers, who were originally in a relatively calm mood, are now a little uneasy, looking around one by one, as if they are thinking about how to escape if the situation is not good.

Li Cunmiao turned a blind eye to this situation, he waited for a moment, waited for everyone to calm down again, and then said loudly: "Although you didn't say it, Lone can see that you have this kind of worry in your hearts. ”

"However, what Lone wants to say is that Lone will never abandon you, absolutely not!"

He galloped on his horse, and when he reached a hillside, he said in a sonorous voice: "Three days ago, when Lone led you across the river, Lone was the first to reach the south bank; Now that the troops are withdrawn and returned, Lone will be the last to land on the north shore! ”

"What? Will the king be the last to cross the river? ”

"It's not going to lie to us, is it?"

All the soldiers suddenly became even more agitated, and they were all muttering quietly, with a hint of expectation on their faces, but also a hint of suspicion.

And Shi Jingjiao and the others finally understood Li Cunqiao's plan.

If he, as the king of Jin, can really cross the river last, then the soldiers' military spirit will definitely be able to settle down immediately.

This kind of promise is much more useful than any reward, or any other false statement, because it gives the soldiers hope that they will stay and fight with the King of Jin, and not be abandoned by the King of Jin.

Of course, if Li Cunqiao really does this, then he himself will also face great danger, and it is difficult to say whether he can even escape back to Hebei in the end.

However, at this time, the two of them did not intend to dissuade them, because in that case, they were afraid that the military spirit would really be over.

Although Li Cunmiao couldn't hear the whispers of the soldiers, and he didn't have the heart to sense everyone's thoughts, he saw the suspicion on everyone's faces.

He immediately took out an arrow and said loudly: "Lone swears here, as long as there is still a soldier on the south bank who insists on fighting, Lone will never be the first to cross the river!" If you break this oath, there is such an arrow! ”

After speaking, he wrenched his hands hard, and immediately broke the arrow in his hand into two.

People in this era still attach great importance to oaths, especially for people with noble status like Li Cunqiao.

The oath solemnly made in front of tens of thousands of soldiers in the whole army, if Li Cunqiao violated it, then his prestige as the king of Jin would be gone.

So after he made such an oath, the soldiers of the Jin army immediately cheered: "Swear to fight to the death!" ”

At this time, Yang Wu was approaching the camp of the Jin army under the escort of the cavalry, and after hearing the cheers of the Jin army, he immediately frowned.

"Li Cunmiao is really very comparable, he has reached this situation, and I don't know what method he used, but he can still inspire the fighting spirit of the soldiers and make them cheer like this. This alone is enough to surpass the vast majority of generals! ”

Sighing in his heart, he then said to the generals who accompanied him: "It seems that Li Cunqiao is planning to cross the river." Then we must also prepare to act, and we must not let the Jin army slip away! ”

Li Decheng on the side immediately replied: "King, the last general is willing to be the vanguard." ”

He felt that in the previous two days of the battle, both the front army and the Chinese army were raided by the Jin army, but they were never defeated, and only the rear army under his command was suddenly attacked and routed by the Jin army, so he was always uneasy in his heart and wanted to behave well.

However, after hearing this, Yang Wu shook his head and said: "Don't worry, now that the enemy army has just crossed the river, why rush for a while?" ”

Although the Wu army now has a great advantage, the Jin army is not a soft persimmon, and even if it is not fought well, it may be injured back.

For Yang Wu, he has a great confidence in winning this battle, but if he wants to completely annihilate the Jin army, he is not at all sure.

So it's better to wait for a while, and wait until the Jin army has already crossed the river with a small half of the army before launching a fierce attack, at that time the Jin army will definitely have a floating heart, thinking of crossing the river as soon as possible, and the army has no heart to fight.

In this way, the Wu army will be able to defeat the enemy army at the minimum cost, and as for how many enemy troops can be killed in the end, it is not up to him to control.

After observing the camp of the Jin army and finding that the Jin army had built some simple fortifications, Yang Wu frowned and said: "It's a pity that the bed crossbows carried by our army have been destroyed, otherwise they can be used at this time." ”

When fighting the Jin army at the beginning, the Wu army posed a great threat to the enemy with twenty bed crossbows, but the subsequent battles were fought at night, and the bed crossbows were not so useful.

Later, the Jin army broke through the Wu army's defense line one after another, forcing the Wu army to retreat to the top of the mountain, in the process, in order to prevent the bed crossbow from falling into the hands of the enemy, Zhu Qianyou ordered the destruction of all the bed crossbows that he could not take away in the future.

I didn't want Li Jian to say: "King, although the last general will be in a hurry and bring not many reinforcements, the last general has five Suzhou cannons, which can be put into use." ”

Yang Wu was surprised and delighted when he heard this, and said, "Since you brought the Suzhou cannon, why don't you assemble it yet?" ”

Li Jian said embarrassedly: "Then the Suzhou cannon should still be in transportation now, and it will take a little time to arrive." ”

Yang Wu nodded.

At this time, the Jin army also discovered that their cavalry team had arrived to reconnoitre, and immediately sent hundreds of cavalry to drive it away.

"Let's go, we should go back too." Yang Wu glanced at it and said calmly.

Returning to the camp, he immediately ordered the army to set out and press forward, until it was only a mile away from the enemy.

This kind of distance is already very close to the armies of the two sides, in fact, if it were not for the Jin army to build simple fortifications, which hindered the attack route of their own cavalry to a certain extent, Yang Wu would not dare to force up so swaggeringly.

At this time, the first batch of soldiers of the Jin army to cross the river had begun to board the boat, in order to carry as many soldiers as possible, Li Cunqiao ordered the soldiers to take off their armor and throw down their weapons to reduce weight; And every ship is packed.

As a result, the river was crossed much faster than it had been three days earlier.

At this time, the Wu army also began to attack, mainly by Wang Yanyan and Li Jian to bring reinforcements as the vanguard task, after all, they are a new force, and they have not experienced bloody battles, and their combat strength at this time is the most complete.

In the face of the attack of the Wu army, the Jin army put up fierce resistance.

When the soldiers saw that the king of Jin, who was the commander of the army, did not cross the river, but stood on a high slope on horseback and quietly watched the battle situation, everyone's mood suddenly calmed down, and the officers and generals were able to concentrate on commanding the battle.

The Jin army's defense line was just like Yang Wu's original arrangement, forming an arc-shaped defense line along the mouth of the river, and at the same time arranging the cavalry on the flanks to facilitate the attack at any time.

The Jin army in the rear boarded the ship in a safe and orderly manner under the command of the generals, while the soldiers in the front desperately resisted the attack of the Wu army, everything seemed to be going well, and it seemed that it was not a problem for the Jin army to withdraw to Hebei safely.

However, Li Cunmiao knew that this seemed calm, but in fact it was just because Wu Jun had not yet begun to exert his strength.

Just as with the siege of the city, if there is no hope of escape, then the enemy will resist desperately, but it will not be easy to destroy it; But if there is hope for the enemy to escape, then the enemy will flee to their lives, so that no one wants to stay and fight for their lives.

At this time, the situation is also average, the Jin army has the hope of escaping, if it is waited until some people have crossed the river safely, the rest of the army will be uneasy, which no matter how Li Cunmiao appeases, it is impossible to completely stop it.

And the Wu army will gradually intensify its attacks, and at that time, the real test of the Jin army will come.

Sure enough, with the first batch of Jin troops crossing the river, under the attention of a large number of soldiers on the bank, they crossed the Yellow River safely and slowly landed on the north bank.

Many soldiers kept crowding forward, hoping that they could board the boat and cross the river as soon as possible; And the soldiers who were left behind before were also a little uneasy at this time, and they looked back at the river from time to time, not knowing when it would be their turn to cross the river.

At the same time, the offensive strength of the Wu army was also rapidly increasing, under the leadership of officers and generals, the sword and shield men held shields in their hands and slowly advanced against the enemy's arrow rain, and the crossbowmen in the rear fired quickly and fired a dense rain of arrows.

At this time, five Suzhou cannons had also arrived, and Yang Wu immediately ordered them to be sent to the front to be assembled.

Soon, in the cheers of the soldiers, the five Suzhou guns were assembled one after another and prepared for launch.

At this time, Yang Wu pointed to the faint river bank in the distance, and said to the officer in charge of operating the Suzhou cannon: "This place is nearly two miles away from the river bank, as far as Gu knows, this should be within the limit range of the Suzhou artillery, can you shoot the enemy's ships?" ”

The officer hesitated for a moment and said, "Returning to the king, I'm afraid that this is a little difficult, after all, you also know that the accuracy of the Suzhou cannon is not good, and this distance is too far." If there are a large number of Suzhou cannons, it is possible to hit, but now there are only five Suzhou cannons, and it is too difficult to hit. ”

Yang Wu waved his hand and said with a smile: "It's okay, you just shoot at the enemy's ships, even if you can't hit, you have to scare and scare them." ”

What can five Suzhou cannons be used for? If it is used in the battle ahead, I am afraid that it will be heard at most, and it will not be of much use, after all, for the fierce battle of tens of thousands of troops on both sides, the number of five Suzhou cannons is still too small.

But if it's used to create panic, it's even better.

Especially at this time, the Jin army was in a hurry to cross the river, and many soldiers were crowded on the bank of the river, if they were hit by Suzhou shelling, they would definitely be able to create a huge panic; And once the Jin army is in chaos because of this, then Li Cunqing's military spirit that he has finally calmed down will be completely finished.

When the Wu army attacked in a big way, it was strange that the Jin army would not collapse.