The fourth watch and the third quarter have passed, and the sky has not yet dawned, and the gray mist has quietly shrouded both sides of the rich water. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

10,000 Tang soldiers have been assembled in front of the Tang army camp, and they will be the first soldiers to cross the river and break through, and the soldiers will sit on the ground, holding their knees with their hands, patiently waiting for the morning glow to rise in the eastern sky.

In front of them were thousands of rafts that had been tied, including hundreds of large rafts, all of which were made of intact giant pines, seven or eight zhang long and four zhang wide, and this kind of large raft could transport hundreds of people across the river at a time.

On the other side, there were also 10,000 Sui crossbowmen waiting, and they had also woken up, also waiting for the war to come.

But the fog is getting heavier and heavier, and the whole river is obscured by gray fog, which has not been foggy like this before, and this is the first time that the river has fogged since the beginning of spring.

The Tang army camped in the narrowest place in the lower reaches of Fushui, only more than 50 zhang wide, as long as they could withstand the Sui army's arrows, they could kill the opposite bank in one go.

However, about 30 miles west of the Tang army camp, Fushui is a different scene, here is the widest place of Fushui, the river is as wide as 150 zhang, such a width can be compared with the surface of the Yellow River, just like a sparkling and calm lake.

What's more important is that there is a mallet-shaped island in the middle of the water surface, called Goyue Island, which is formed by the slow accumulation of sediment for thousands of years, the island is very narrow and long, the width is only more than 20 zhang, but the length is full of one and a half miles, the island is full of dense metasequoia, if all the metasequoia are cut down, the island can accommodate up to 3,000 people.

When the Tang scouts discovered that there was a long island in the middle of the river, Li Xiaogong thought of a strategy to cross the river.

The time gradually came to the fifth watch, and the fog on the river surface became heavier, covering the entire rich water on both banks, and the sight distance on the river surface was only one zhang away.

At this moment, an army of five thousand led by the general Shi Huaiyi came out of the woods on the south bank of Fushui, and every two of them carried a small raft, which could send two soldiers across the opposite bank.

On the surface, 10,000 Tang troops were preparing to cross the river at the narrowest part of the river, but in fact they were covering 5,000 elite soldiers to cross the river from the widest part of the river.

Of course, the Tang soldiers at the narrowest part of the river will also cross the river after dawn, but the 5,000 soldiers who cross the river first will attack the Sui army on the opposite bank in time to create an opportunity for the Tang soldiers to cross the river.

In a short time, the mighty 5,000 Tang Army soldiers arrived at the bank of Fushui, and at this time, Li Xiaogong also appeared in the team, and he gave the order to cross the river in a low voice.

The Tang soldiers pushed the raft into the river one after another, and two soldiers took the lead in getting on the raft and began to paddle left and right, so that the raft began to move towards the middle of the river.

There are two kinds of rafts for the Tang army's attack, one small raft can only accommodate two people, while the other large raft can carry more than 30 people.

So the Tang army crossed the river in two groups, the first group of 2,000 soldiers crossed the river with 1,000 small rafts, and the second group of 3,000 soldiers crossed the river with 100 large rafts.

In a moment, a thousand rafts had all been launched, and two thousand Tang soldiers got on the rafts and rowed towards Gouyue Island in the river.

The width of the rich water where the Tang army crossed the river was equivalent to a mile in later generations, the water potential was very gentle, and the land on both sides was flat, which was very suitable for the army to cross the river, but because the water was still relatively urgent, the long-term paddling consumed the physical strength of the soldiers, and when the opposing army defended and counterattacked, the Tang army's room for maneuver was small.

In this way, Gogetsu Island in the middle of the river is an excellent transit place, and if Gogetsu Island can be occupied, it will be nearly half the journey for the army crossing the river.

But the so-called road is one foot high, the magic is one foot high, Li Xiaogong wanted to cross the river by striking the east and attacking the west, and Zhang Xuan, the commander of the Sui army, had already thought that the Tang army would cross the river from Gouyue Island.

As early as the day before the Tang army arrived on the south bank of Fushui, he arranged for 500 Sui soldiers to occupy Gouyue Island first, they were deployed on the long and narrow island, and they were ready according to Zhang Xuan's orders.

The two Tang soldiers on each raft were fully armed, with shields on their backs, knives at their waists, and a spear beside them, and each soldier's eyes showed a desire for success in crossing the river.

The first batch of more than 300 small rafts are getting closer and closer to Gouyue Island, and there are still fifty steps away from the island, and finally a soldier on the raft can't help but shout, the shouting drives the emotions of other soldiers, hundreds of Tang soldiers shouted in unison, they used their last strength to paddle, the raft suddenly accelerated, and Gouyue Island got closer and closer......

One hundred and fifty steps is the effective killing distance of the Sui army's crossbow arrows, and within fifty steps it can shoot through the shield, and there is no live mouth, at this moment, a bang sounded on the island, and five hundred Sui crossbowmen fired at the same time, the arrows were like flying locusts, and five hundred crossbow arrows shot quickly to the raft on the river.

The three hundred rafts sailing in the front were first hit by the Sui army, and the dense rain of arrows jingled on the raft, although these Tang soldiers were wearing double leather armor, but the Sui army's crossbow arrows were extremely strong, pervasive, and the thin and sharp crossbow arrows passed through the gaps in the leather armor, shooting through the two layers of armor of the Tang soldiers, and for a time there was a loud scream, and the soldiers on the raft fell into the water one after another.

In particular, the first hundred rafts suffered heavy casualties, almost all the soldiers were shot dead, and the empty rafts swirled in the river, making it difficult to continue moving.

The Sui army's crossbow arrows were round after round, and the arrows were so dense that there were already more than 300 rafts without owners, and the rafts had no power to move forward, and floated downstream along the river.

Although the Sui army ambushed on the island was beyond Li Xiaogong's expectations, he was already riding a tiger at this time, and if he admitted defeat and withdrew, it would seriously affect the morale of the Tang army downstream to cross the river.

Li Xiaogong also let go and shouted: "Give me a drum!" ”

"Boom! Boom! Boom! ”

The drums of the south bank were loud, a hundred large rafts were launched, and three thousand soldiers began to paddle towards the island in the river.

At this time, more than 80 small rafts once again rushed into the 50 paces, the drums were like thunder, the shouts shook the sky, and nearly 200 Tang soldiers rowed hard under the leadership of General Shi Huaiyi, getting closer and closer to Gouyue Island.

At this time, on the other side of the river, Zhang Xuan watched expressionlessly as the Tang army attacked Gouyue Island, which only had 500 troops and no large-scale weapons to defend the island, so it was inevitable to lose it.

Although the fog obscured Zhang Xuan's vision, from the distance of the shouting and killing, the first batch of Tang soldiers were about to rush to the island, and his eyes looked at the other side of the river a mile away.

More rafts appeared on the river, and the darkness was overwhelming, but there were no soldiers on the other side, and all the soldiers were in the water.

Obviously, Li Xiaogong did not go all out, he only invested thousands of troops here, which made Zhang Xuan feel a trace of regret in his heart, he deployed 20,000 soldiers and 5,000 cavalry to meet the battle, quite a bit of a chicken slaughtering knife.

Zhang Xuan ordered lightly: "Mingjin retreats!" ”

At this time, on the surface of the river, more than 200 rafts were shot in half, but ten rafts had already rowed within ten steps from the island, and they were about to reach the shore, and dozens of other rafts behind them also entered within thirty steps, and the faces of the Tang soldiers were already clearly visible.

At this time, Shi Huaiyi roared wildly, jumped up, brandished his double guns and jumped on Gouyue Island, he was the son of Shi Wansui, the first fierce general of the Great Sui that year, although he was not able to inherit his father's Long Live boring, but he was still trained by his father since he was a child, and he still practiced a superb martial arts under the cultivation of his father, and entered the top twenty in the World Heroes Association, ranking tenth.

In particular, the ninth Song Laosheng was hammered to death by Li Xuanba in Hedong County, and Shi Huaiyi has risen to the ninth place, ranking third in the list of Tang military generals, second only to Li Xuanba and Wu Yunzhao.

Shi Huaiyi was actually Li Shimin's general, the official was the general of the right Wuwei, after he followed Li Shimin to attack Jiangling City, Li Shimin returned to Chang'an to report on his work, he stayed in Jiangling, this time following Li Xiaogong to the east, was appointed as a vanguard general.

This time when he retreated north to Jiangxia, Shi Huaiyi, like other generals, had already held back his anger and hated Li Shenfu's ruthlessness and injustice.

At this time, he vented his anger on the enemy, and he fired arrows with his two guns and rushed towards the densest area of the enemy army on the island.

At this moment, the retreat bell rang on the opposite bank, and the Sui army on the island began to retreat quickly, their original intention was not to fight for the island, seeing that the Tang soldiers were about to land, they abandoned the island one after another, discarded their weapons, jumped directly from the other side of the rich water, and struggled to swim to the opposite shore.

The retreat efficiency of the Sui soldiers was extremely high, and most of the rafts of the Tang army were still dozens of steps away from the island.

The cries of victory of the Tang army sounded on Gouyue Island, and their battle flags fluttered on the island, as if they had won the battle.

Zhang Xuan's eyes showed a sneering sneer, his eyes were still fixed on the other thousands of rafts, they were paddling quickly on the river, there was no interception by the Sui army, these rafts all docked on the island, together with the Tang soldiers on the island, there were as many as 3,000 people, Zhang Xuan saw that the time was ripe, and ordered: "Shoot the rocket!" ”

A rocket's 'whoosh!' 's shot into the night sky, piercing through the gray fog, and being particularly dazzling in the night sky.

On the south bank of Fushui, Li Xiaogong saw that his army occupied Gouyue Island as planned, a smile appeared on his face, capturing Gouyue Island means that they have won half of the victory, and the strip on the opposite bank is more than ten miles long is conducive to landing, even if the Sui army's crossbowmen are strong, it is difficult to prevent them from landing flexibly, he immediately turned around and ordered: "Beat the drums, attack the other side!" ”

Huge war drums rumbled on the shore, an order urging the Don troops on the island to continue the offensive. (To be continued.) )