In the south of Wuchang County, there are still endless hills and forests, green water meanders like a jade belt, patches of farmland are distributed between green water and forests, and occasionally a village will appear in a beautiful place. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Compared with the desolate and uninhabited south of Fushui, the population here has gradually gathered, and in the middle of spring, a vibrant scene appeared on the land of Jiangxia.

In a hilly area about seventy miles away from Wuchang County, a Tang army of about 8,000 people is marching southward at a rapid pace, this Tang army is the 8,000 army sent by Li Shenfu to support Li Xiaogong, 8,000 people are neither more nor less, less the imperial court will blame Li Shenfu for poor rescue, and more Li Shenfu is worried about being surrounded and defeated by the Sui army.

The general who led these 8,000 people is called Li Leishi, more than 30 years old, tall and burly, with a long square face, full of thorns, looking very powerful, he is one of Li Shenfu's henchmen, the weapon used is a green dragon halberd, weighing about 70 catties, brave and good at fighting, and has fought fiercely in Longyou and Xue Rengao for dozens of rounds without winning or losing.

Before leaving, Li Shenfu repeatedly explained that the eight words were 'cautious and slow, and retreat when encountering obstacles', Li Leishi knew the lord's mind very well, and the lord did not really want to rescue Li Xiaogong, but he was forced to express himself under pressure.

It was precisely because of Li Shenfu's statement that Li Leishi was extremely cautious, and the army only walked seventy miles after two days, while Fushui was still three hundred miles away.

At this time, the deputy general Wu Ping stepped forward and said in a low voice: "General, we only brought dry food for seven days, and we have to consider the return trip, I am afraid that we will not be able to reach Fushui if we go on like this, so we should not go to the mine to get some food!" ”

Eighty miles to the southeast of them, there were 3,000 garrisons and tens of thousands of miners, and food supplies were not a problem.

Li Leishi shook his head, "The prince has an order not to lead the Sui army to the mine, and don't mention the matter of the mine again." ”

"But... We ..... food"

"I know it in my heart!"

Li Leishi interrupted him unhappily, he was about to say that he would withdraw his troops tomorrow, but suddenly remembered that except for himself, none of his generals knew the true attitude of the prince, and this kind of thing must not be known to the people below.

Li Leishi changed his statement, "General Wu sent scouts to the front to investigate, to guard against the ambush of the Sui army, and I will arrange other things." ”

"Obey the order!"

Wu Ping had to bow and go to An.

The army continued to march, and in the afternoon, at least an hour before dusk, Li Leishi saw that there was a small forest beside the road, and the woods were still relatively dry, so he ordered the soldiers to rest for the night.

Generally speaking, it is true that the army should not be too tired on the march, getting up late and going to bed early is conducive to ensuring the physical strength of the soldiers, and they can calmly face the sneak attack of the enemy, and it is not too much to walk thirty or forty miles a day, which is within the normal range.

But Li Leishi's army is to fight the fire, Li Xiaogong's army is almost unable to support it, in this case, it should be forced to march, run day and night, march more than 100 miles a day, this is called emergency rescue.

Therefore, Li Leishi's leisurely marching method really puzzled many generals, everyone was full of doubts, but they didn't dare to ask more, so they had to communicate secretly, and everyone agreed that I was afraid that the prince wanted to be alone.

The soldiers had drunk enough and began to relax and fall asleep, when dusk had fallen, and in the distance there was an endless wilderness, and the sunset had colored the whole land a brilliant red.

At this moment, there was a rapid sound of horses' hooves in the distance, followed by a soldier shouting: "Enemy situation has been discovered!" Discover the enemy! ”

Li Leishi, who was lying on the stone slab and was just about to fall asleep, sat up and asked urgently, "Where is the military situation?" ”

At this time, the sentry on the tree also shouted, "Enemy situation found in the distance!" ”

The news of the discovery of the enemy situation spread like the wind throughout the army, and the Tang troops who were sleeping got up one after another, all of them were very nervous, but the Sui army did not seem to have raided them, and many Tang soldiers saw it, and a long black line appeared in the wilderness a few miles away, with at least thousands of cavalry.

"General, what shall we do?" Wu Ping asked Li Leishi nervously.

Li Leishi couldn't see the intentions of the Sui cavalry, if he wanted to fight them, he could kill them now, but they didn't move, could it be.......

A thought popped up in Li Leishi's mind, could it be that Sui Jun was just warning them?

A hint of luck rose in his heart, and he immediately ordered: "Retreat north immediately!" ”

The order to withdraw immediately spread throughout the army, and the Tang soldiers quickly left the woods and retreated the way they came, but the Sui cavalry did not let them go, but continued to follow, always keeping a distance of two miles from them.

The distance of two miles was a charge for the cavalry, and they waited patiently for the opportunity to hunt their prey to a pack of wolves.

The Tang army retreated ten miles to the north, and at this time, night had gradually fallen, and the deputy general Wu Ping was the first to react, he found Li Leishi and said urgently: "General, the Sui army is waiting for dark to attack!" ”

Li Leishi suddenly woke up, if he fought at night, he was afraid that his fierceness would be less, he looked around, and saw that on the left was a hilly slope dozens of zhang high, covered with woods, Li Leishi immediately ordered: "Pass my order, the army goes up the mountain!" ”

The 8,000 troops rushed to the mountain under the leadership of Li Leishi, this is a lonely hillside, the top of the hill covers an area of about 100 acres, and it is not crowded to accommodate 8,000 soldiers.

At this time, there were several Sui cavalry rushing from all directions, and the five cavalry converged together, there were as many as 10,000 people, Li Leishi's face was a little pale, and he realized that they had been surrounded by Sui cavalry before, and if he chose to fight fiercely with the Sui army at that time, then they would probably be attacked on all sides.

This made Li Leishi feel a little lucky, fortunately he gave the order to go up the mountain in time, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable, as for what to do after dawn tomorrow? He didn't know it himself.

"General, while the enemy army has not completely surrounded us, send scouts to Wuchang for help!" Wu Ping persuaded again.

This time Li Leishi accepted his suggestion, he wrote a simple letter, and took out the military talisman and said to the two soldiers: "You two immediately rush to Wuchang and ask the prince to come to our rescue." ”

"Obey!"

The two soldiers took the letter and the token and put it away closely, they turned over their horses, ran towards the northeast corner where the Sui army had not yet closed, and in a moment ran down the mountain and disappeared into the night.

.........

This 10,000-strong Sui army cavalry is led by Luo Cheng, his task is to intercept the reinforcements from Wuchang halfway, Luo Cheng is no longer Wuxia Ameng when he just led the troops, the past two or three years of the campaign has gradually accumulated rich experience, the commander Zhang Xuan did not order him what to do, and let him decide for himself.

Luo Cheng had the patience of a wolf, calmly dealt with it, and was not in a hurry to annihilate the enemy, he wanted to get as much loot as possible to the greatest extent.

Luo Cheng's deputy general is called Xiao Jinyong, who was originally a military general in Youzhou, making a seventy-pound big knife, with the courage of ten thousand people, which won Pei Xingyan's attention, and gradually became a Huya Lang general, he was originally Luo Yi's general, and now it is more logical to follow Luo Cheng.

Xiao Jinyong rode to Luo Cheng on horseback and reported: "General Qiyu, the enemy's messenger has broken through to the north. ”

Luo Cheng nodded, and smiled at the generals on both sides: "Others are besieging the city to help, we are besieging the mountains to help, it is best that Li Shenfu can send troops to rescue, we will go directly to raid their lair." ”

Everyone laughed, and Xiao Jinyong asked, "General, what if Li Shenfu refuses to send troops here?" ”

Luo Cheng looked at the dark mountains and forests, and said lightly: "Then I have to take them as snacks!" ”

………

"Boom! Boom! Boom! ”

After a day of armistice, the Tang army once again launched the battle of forcibly crossing Fushui, and nearly 20,000 Tang soldiers entered the battle.

And the north bank of Fushui also invested 20,000 Sui troops to intercept, the battle has been going on for half a day, the Tang army has failed to erect pontoon bridges twice in a row, the water is full of messy wood, and countless corpses were washed to the shore by the water, and the black pressure was connected into a line of corpses up to a mile, and the Tang army has lost more than 3,000 people.

"The fifth batch went down to the river!" Lu Shangzu, the master of the river crossing, waved his sword and shouted.

The fifth group of about 3,000 soldiers of the Tang Army boarded hundreds of large and small rafts and struggled to sail to the other side of the river.

The Sui army slowly accumulated experience, because the Tang soldiers were mainly lying on the raft, and the direct crossbow arrow killing effect was not great, but the step bow was different, because the foot bow was shot upwards at an oblique angle, the arrow fell in a parabola, and the penetration was extremely strong, which brought a huge threat to the Tang soldiers on the raft, and most of the Tang soldiers died under the edge of the armor-piercing arrow.

As the arrows of the Sui soldiers fell like a torrential rain, the Tang soldiers on the raft used their shields to block their vital points, resigned themselves to fate, countless arrows swished into the water, and a miserable scream sounded on the river, the shield could not block the whole body, most of the middle soldiers were hit by arrows in the hips and legs, and blood gushed out immediately.

At this time, the sky became dark again, and the second round of 20,000 arrows was shot down, and the air seemed to be suffocated.

'Knock-knock-'

The dull sound of leather drums sounded, and the Sui soldiers on the shore stopped shooting, only to see hundreds of worm boats rushing towards the battlefield like arrows. (To be continued.) )