Chapter Twenty-Three: The Chinese Counterattack
In the second year of Ouyang Xuan's abdication, that is, in the spring of 104 BC, Liu Che, who could not bear it, finally divided his troops into four routes, with 300,000 soldiers per road rushing to Shanggu, Sanshui, Guangling, and Jiangxia County. The attack on Shanggu was a prince of the Yulin Army cultivated by Ouyang Xuan back then, the current Zhenbei general Lu Duan, the attack on Sanshuiguan was a Yulin Army commander of the year, the current general Wang Li, from Guangling was a captain of the original Yulin Army, the current general of the Zhenjun Zhu Heng, and the attack on Jiangxia was the general Ma Tang promoted by the former Ouyang Xuan, the general of the current cavalry general, and was a general promoted from the captain when Ouyang Xuan led the Yulin Army out of the Shanggu to conquer the Huns, and he and Zhou Zhong, who was promoted together that year, chose to stay when Ouyang Xuan moved north, Ouyang Xuan only took away Lang Xuan, Zhang Jian, Han Liang, Huo Xin and Wei Teng. Zhou Zhong was unjustly killed by Liu Che, and now Ma Tang is the only remaining Yulin general that year, Wei Teng died of illness shortly after moving north, and Lang swore that Zhang Jian died in battle.
In the face of the four-way attack, Ouyang Hong, who had never commanded a large war, entrusted Li Mao, the secretary of the military department, to take command of the entire Chinese army and counterattack. In accordance with the instructions left by Ouyang Xuan before leaving, Li Mao led 200,000 horses from the Central Military Region to guard Shanggu, and Peng Fei led 100,000 horses from the Headquarters Military Region to guard Sanshui. Bai Yang led 100,000 horses from the Northern Military Region to the south to reinforce them, Dai Zhan defended in Changsha according to the terrain, and Tong Yuan and Meng Dan intercepted the enemy going south on the Yangtze River waterway. Zhou He, Zhao Meng, and Xian Yushun, who were meritorious in defending the Han army last time, were entrusted with important tasks this time.
At the turn of the spring and summer of 104 B.C., the war finally broke out, Wang Li led an army of 300,000 troops, divided into three roads, from the mountain path, one by one close to the Sanshui Pass, of which the west road was directly under the leadership of the guide, from the west side of the mountain road from the Sanshui Pass 500 miles away around the Great Wall, foot and horse coordination outside the Great Wall to the back of the Sanshui Pass. Rao is Peng Fei has experienced several wars, when he heard the report of the horse exploration, he was also in a cold sweat, Sanshuiguan is located in the Qingshui River Valley of Liupan Mountain, it is the place where the soldiers of all dynasties must fight, here is Ouyang Xuan was built, and the Gaoping of the Han Dynasty echoes in the Liupan Mountain River Valley, it is a necessary section of the Silk Road in history. Peng Fei ordered the horses to go out hundreds of miles away and closely monitor the 100,000 Han troops behind them. The horse exploration battalion was sent to clear the Han army, and the horses were all handed down by a master, and of course the tactics were naturally the same. The Han army, which bypassed the pass from the mountain road to the east, approached the artillery base on the hill on the east side of Sanshui Pass. Only the 100,000 soldiers and horses led by Wang Li came all the way along the river valley. Peng Fei looked at the three-way siege situation from the Tanma newspaper, and also admired this Wang Li very much, I have to say that this is a wonderful move, the east road could go around the pass to attack the weak part of the Great Wall, but chose to go straight to the artillery position on the east side. If it were me, I would do the same.
Lu Duan, who attacked Shanggu, did not follow the conventional attack method of the Han army, but chose to divide his troops into two routes, one was stationed in Guangyang County, and the other was led by a guide, and he entered the Yanshan Mountains five hundred miles east of Yuyang and disappeared, which made Huyan Leopard also have a headache. Ordered to defend along the Great Wall, 200,000 troops, take out 100,000 soldiers to guard the Great Wall, lay telephone lines, and defend themselves if there is a change in one place, and no reinforcements are allowed elsewhere. Ten miles away from Juyong, Lu Duan set up camp and closed his door.
Zhu Heng, who sent troops from Guangling, led the general Yang Servant of the Lou boat, advancing by land and water, echoing each other along the Jiajiang River. Due to the fear of the Chinese naval army, they did not rush to march, but scattered the army in units of 10,000 people and marched together, covering the movement of the naval army like a big net. For Tong Yuan and Meng Dan, these 300,000 people are really not to be feared, and the ironclad battleship alone is enough for these 300,000 people to drink a pot. Nearly 100 ships of all sizes were separated along the river, and Tong Yuan led six 8,000-ton ships, loaded with ammunition and sealed them at the mouth of the Jiajiang River. Meng Dan's musketeer corps had 1,000 to 5,000 men allocated on each ship, and it was a purely modern army. In the face of the Han army, which was still in the cold weapon, it had a great advantage. When Tanma reported that the Han army was thirty miles away, Tong Yuan ordered six ships to line up to attack, and the moment they met the enemy, the two ships in the vanguard took the lead in firing their guns. Opened the first battle of the counterattack in the four places, the wooden Han army building ships on the Jiajiang River could withstand such a powerful blow, within half an hour, hundreds of building ships turned into powder, and the side guns of the six ships also opened fire at the same time, covering the Han army on both sides, the bombardment was dizzy, and the dead and wounded were repeated, and Yang Fu was unfortunately hit by a shell and died. Under artillery fire, the Han army on land had to retreat to both sides for forty miles. Tong Yuan led the army back to the Yangtze River waterway and continued to wait for the Han army to land.
Ma Tang, who came out of the river, was very cautious, and his troops were divided into ten routes, planning to cross the river from different locations, scatter and attack the surrounding counties and counties of Changsha and Yuzhang, isolate the central city, and then concentrate his forces to attack in a unified manner. But he forgot that the generals on the opposite side were also taught by the same master, so he naturally knew the key points of mountain warfare. After several river crossing points were attacked by ships in succession, and after losing 100,000 horses, Ma Tang had to withdraw his troops back to the Lujiang River to show that the enemy was weak, and wanted to attract the Huaxia army ashore and strike again. With the assistance of the fleet, Dai Zhan entered Baidang Lake in Zongyang County, continued to attack the Han army on the shore, and went upstream, and suddenly landed in batches with 50,000 Huaxia troops in Fushan, and at the same time 50,000 Huaxia troops landed at Chaohu. Advance under the cover of naval guns, and after getting out of the protective range of naval guns, get on the horse and gallop, quickly eliminate the small Han army, and then surround the Han army on the east and west sides of the Lujiang River. After Dai Zhan ordered the battalions to be covered by standing artillery fire, he launched a cavalry charge when the Han army's gun and shield array was still in a panic, and the cavalry galloping on fast horses rushed left and right in the Han camp full of craters under the leadership of Dai Zhan's leading soldiers. The 200,000 Han troops were routed before they could line up, and Ma Tang was beheaded by Dai Zhan. With the addition of the Chinese infantry phalanx, the Han army was completely defeated, and under the organization of the deputy general, led less than 80,000 horses to retreat to Runan. Dai Zhan ordered Ma Tang to be buried in Fushan with the etiquette of the Chinese army generals, and Ma Tang, who could have become a famous general, only met an opponent who knew more about war and advanced war concepts than him. Ouyang Xuan was also very sad when he learned about his death, they were all his own disciples, but they had taken different paths.
After Dai Zhan defeated the Han army of Ma Tang, he took a short rest, made a ship, and came to Guangling. After landing in batches at Xupu (now Yizheng County) and completing the replenishment and assembly, the 30,000 musket army that converged with Meng Dan came to Guangling, and met Zhu Heng ten miles outside Guangling City, and the 100,000 Huaxia army faced the 250,000 Han army without the slightest fear. The infantry in the Leh spear shield array, the cavalry protected the two wings, and the musketeers replaced the crossbowmen in the spear and shield array. The lethality of the rifle is not as good as that of a shield, plus the coverage of 60 artillery fire. The Chinese army of the Han army was broken by the Huaxia army in an instant, and when he rushed through the battle, Dai Zhan felt a little bad. Obviously, he felt that the Chinese army was too weak, which was not in line with the way of using troops, and immediately ordered the whole army to change its shape and protect both sides, just when the Huaxia army was busy changing formations, two teams of men and horses suddenly came out of the left and right wings, and there were 50,000 people on each side. The cavalry of the Huaxia Army immediately set off from the flank to meet the enemy, all of them were apprentices taught by a master, but there were first and last, and the two teams of men and horses clashed at the beginning of the year, and the superior judgment was made. After all, this kind of grouped tactic was Ouyang Xuan's move north and improved before he was in the whole army. 20,000 cavalry against 50,000 cavalry was just one round, and more than half of the Han cavalry was gone, while the Huaxia army was almost only wounded by horses, and only a few were wounded. After the second round, there were not many Han troops left, and the infantry had been lined up, forming a gun and shield array that was defended on all sides, and the infantry took over from the cavalry to clear the remnants of the enemy. 300,000 horses, after this battle, only less than 30,000 escaped, the rest were all killed, Zhu Heng was unfortunately shot by Meng Dan. The Huaxia army lost more than 3,000 killed and 8,000 wounded, and was basically cavalry.
In the face of such an unfavorable situation, he chose to hear from Ouyang Xuan about Zhuge Liang's strategy of burning Xinye and the empty city, but there were many changes, making full use of the topography and architectural characteristics of Sanshui Pass. Sanshuiguan is a protruding pass of the Great Wall, with a façade to the south and a wide Qingshui River valley. The east and west sides are supported by the ridge, the artillery is on the east side of the ridge of the battery, the north side is the Great Wall, the middle is the north and south long five miles, the east and west long twenty miles long urn city, because it is a military fortress, there is no one living in it, peacetime as an army station, wartime is an empty city. Peng Fei ordered all the crossbowmen to assemble in the fort to protect the fort closely, and concentrate all the regular artillery fire of each battalion on the fort. Other soldiers withdrew to the Great Wall, opened the gate behind the Great Wall, left the empty urn city for the Han army, buried tens of thousands of pull-hair jumping thunder in the urn city, placed light fuel oil everywhere, sprinkled fuel oil on the walls of the urn city, and sent a cavalry of 50,000 people to go down the city from the other side of the Great Wall and attack the Han army around the Great Wall on the north side from behind. A few days later, Wang Li came slowly with 100,000 Han troops, and the Han army on the east side also came from the mountain road, and the Han army on the north side was stationed on the land of Huaxia ten miles north of the city. In the face of such an empty city, Wang Li was very puzzled, and successively sent several groups of scouts to investigate, but they found nothing, and they could even communicate with the Han army in the north through the city gate. In this way, the confrontation lasted for more than ten days, Wang Li has been very confused, if he does not attack this pass, he will directly enter the hinterland of China, and he will be cut off from the back road and besieged. If you attack this level, the current phenomenon is too weird. In the end, he finally couldn't resist such a temptation, and ordered the whole army to besiege the north and south on three sides, and the Han army directly entered the urn city through the city gate, passed the steps, braved the rain of arrows of the Chinese army, and climbed the city wall of the urn city. After suffering countless casualties and casualties, they finally approached the junction between the Great Wall and the Wengcheng City. But the crossbows there were even more violent. On the east side, there were also 10,000 crossbows fired in unison, and the artillery on the mountain beam finally let out a roar, bombarding the Han army outside the city, and the 60 artillery fired grenades at the Han army attacking the fort. There were 100,000 Han troops on the city wall of the city and the urn city, Peng Fei finally dropped the red flag on the city tower, several soldiers on the city wall pulled down the hair rope, several jumping thunderbolts were detonated one after another, and then more jumping thunderbolts were detonated, blowing up the oil tank and igniting the fire oil.
The artillery fire on the fort also began to cover the walls of the urn city, and in an instant, fires broke out in the city and on the city walls. The fire is blazing, and the fire is raging. The Huaxia army on the Great Wall felt a heat wave, and had to run to the north side, and began to fire 10,000 crossbows at the Han army that had not yet entered the city. The artillery fire on the fort began to cover the Han army on the south side, and the Han troops attacking the fort could only attack with 60 cannons and crossbow arrows due to the angle problem. Now the 60 cannon is no longer an ordinary shell, but 1 burn 1 shell. Since they were all Han immigrants, Peng Fei forbade the use of phosphorus 1 burning, 1 burning and 1 bomb. Wang Li, who had not entered the city outside the city, was also dizzy now, he could never have imagined that he had only left Ouyang Xuan for more than forty years, and the Huaxia Army actually had so many means of attack. The gray beard had just been ignited by the flying sparks, and it smelled of burning. Seeing such a tragic scene, he had to order Mingjin to withdraw his troops. The eastern mountain road is now also full of fires, and it is already difficult to withdraw troops. There were less than 20,000 soldiers returning from the south side, and they were still under constant fire from the batteries. The north side was even more miserable, and the Han army that had just escaped and ascended to heaven had no time to breathe, when they were slaughtered by the oncoming 50,000 cavalry. The fire did not stop until the afternoon, and Wang Li ordered the whole army to withdraw to Gaoping. The 100,000 Han troops that passed around the Great Wall were almost completely annihilated by the cavalry. Less than 50,000 Han troops who attacked on the east road came back alive, and only more than 20,000 Han troops attacked from the south. Wang Li hurriedly wrote a letter to ask for guilt in Gaoping, but before the letter was sent away, Peng Fei led the army to kill Gaoping after dealing with the battlefield. Outside the city, Peng Fei ordered a trebuchet to be made, throwing sandbags to form a ramp. This is Ouyang Xuan's personal trick, or the first time Peng Fei has used it, in less than a day, a fifty-step wide step paved with sandbags can be completed. After the artillery fire covered the city wall, Peng Fei rushed to the city wall with an infantry phalanx, and after pushing it to both sides, the follow-up teams came up one after another. After the artillery set up the gun mounts on the city wall, the balance completely fell to the side of the Huaxia army, and when the city gate was beaten, Wang Li had to flee to Chencang with the remnants of the defeated army.
Lu Duan, whom Huyan Leopard faced, was indeed a difficult opponent, and Huyan Leopard encountered a lot of trouble.