Chapter 58: Forced Crossing

Shaanzhou City is in sight, although it is only 20 miles away, but the real soldiers are under the city, it still took two days.

To the west of the ancient city of Shaanzhou is the Qinglong Stream, which flows into the Yellow River to the north, the Yellow River to the north and east, and Ganshan to the south.

The masonry city wall is three feet and five feet high, because it is surrounded by rivers, it is a naturally deep and wide moat, according to the art of war, Shaanzhou Mansion is a textbook fortified city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack - but if there is a second way, Guan Shengyun and Luo Yonghao will definitely not choose this place as the first battle of the army. There have been many military discussions, and all the generals are also very worried about this. Not to mention anything else, just for the creation of various siege equipment, everyone's experience is very limited, and simple equipment such as ladders, crashes and trenches are just that, no one dares to pat their chests and say how long it will take to make a siege tower that will not fall apart halfway. As for the catapult, don't even think about it, no one in Guan Shengyun's army at this time will make such high-tech equipment!

In the end, everyone had to decide: continue to cut off the traffic and stealth the march, and strive to achieve the effect of a surprise attack. Besiege the city first, and then slowly map it, and then adapt to the situation, and at the same time see if God blesses it. In case it can't be attacked, the army will have to go around the city, although it will leave a huge hidden danger behind it, and it will cause an almost first-class blow to morale - since the hasty formation of the army, whether it is a mistake or a bluff, it has been invincible, and the morale of the troops is unprecedentedly high, but in any case, everyone can not shed blood at the first stop.

The first problem that needs to be solved is to cross the Qinglong Stream.

This is not difficult: Guo Qinglin personally led the auxiliary fleet and marched in unison with the large troops on the official road. More than 100 large and small boats, half carrying You Futian's Tianyi Battalion were responsible for guarding and cutting off the ferries on both sides of the Yellow River, and the other half carried wooden ropes, sailed straight from the Yellow River into Qinglong Stream, and opened horizontally at the widest part of the river, that is, the slowest water flow, and nailed the boats with wooden planks to be a pontoon bridge.

The biggest fear was the possibility of an attack on the pontoon bridge – and this was the most likely: no one could build a springboard under the threat of swords, guns, bows and arrows on the shore (the auxiliaries were unarmoured, and the lethality of bows and arrows should not be underestimated). In case of such a situation, he had to sacrifice the Tianyi battalion, abandon the boat and go ashore, and use his life to buy time to open a small position landing ground for Gu Baihua's Gangfeng battalion.

If there is no resistance, Gu Baisong's horse team must be the first to cross the pontoon bridge. They are desperate to block the possible counterattack in the city - even if the city does not have time to organize troops to prevent the bridge, it is a fool who understands the truth of attacking halfway, even if it is only a short assault and burns the pontoon bridge, it will bring disastrous consequences to the army! The officers and troops had enough time to build positions along the river, and as long as the front road was cut off, tens of thousands of people would be blocked in a narrow valley and in a dilemma, and it would probably only be a matter of time before the entire army was annihilated.

Gu Baihua's Gangfeng battalion will cross the bridge in the second group after the horse team crosses the river. If the city launches a counterattack, they will join the battle group to withstand the attack, leaving enough beachhead for the large army to form a formation, on the contrary, if they do not encounter a strong counterattack, after Gao Tengdou's three flying beast battalions cross the river to take over, they will turn straight to the south and set up an ambush at the stone pass according to the predetermined plan.

At this moment, there were only about a dozen soldiers on the west wall of Shaanzhou City. It stands to reason that although in a peaceful year, this kind of strategy is rushed, and the defenders on one wall should be at least hundred. However, a while ago, the commander killed thousands of households, the imperial court killed the commander, and every big man's head fell to the ground, and there would be several, dozens, or even dozens of thousands of general flag officials, small flag officials, and even unlucky big-headed soldiers who were unlucky together, and the guard force of Hongnongwei had suffered great losses. What's worse is that since the arrival of Master Ma, the situation has become even worse. It is said that in other places, most of them are specifically looking for trouble for the local people and wealthy families, but because they want to please the imperial court, since they arrived here, Ma Daren has been eyeing the guard - Ma Daren himself said that he would purge the great rebellion of the Li & Bin Li Jian brothers, and return the saint to a clear Shaanzhou Mansion!

There are few literate people in the army, and Master Ma turned all the thousands of households and hundreds of households upside down, not to mention the anti-book, and he didn't even find a piece of paper with words. But is Master Ma willing to give up? If you can't find the book, you can check the speech, as long as it involves the private discussion of the Li brothers, Master Ma must know - there is a reward for reporting, and if you don't report it, you will be guilty of the same crime!

Li Li of Baihu is quite prestigious in the camp, he is righteous, and he also has some real skills. When the old man of Zhizhou took office, a few strongmen jumped over from the south, hiding in the mountains and coming out to grab a handful from time to time. Li Ye drank wine, and was provoked by the tavern owner who had been robbed, in order to win a few dollars of silver wine money, but also for the sake of face, he took people to drill the ravine, and really brought back two heads - the credit naturally went to Commander Li, but Li Ye earned enough face and won another wine, which was enough, and he didn't care too much.

It's a pity that when it comes to it, Li Ye and Commander Li & Bin also have some distant relatives. However, this relative relationship is really far away, even if there is no five suits, it is almost the same, and there is no intersection in Pingsuli - otherwise, Commander Li would not be embarrassed to really reach out and grab the beheading skill, right? This layer of relationship that everyone doesn't remember very much, somehow it was known by Master Ma, plus Li Ye made a few complaints after drinking, and then Li Ye was arrested. Because of "not spitting the truth", he was sentenced to a standing cage at the city gate, and the man who was more than five feet tall was lifted out of the state yamen and was already in shape, and on the fifth day, he was in the dead cage. Almost at the same time, seeing that Gu San, who was not wanted to be seen by anyone in the camp, changed into a new outfit arrogantly, and caught who to blow to whom how fragrant the Datong aunt in Yichun Building was...... Everyone knows what's going on. It's just that Master Ma's methods are really ruthless, and he hates to hate, and no one dares to really do anything to Gu San's deflated son.

Later, the soldiers and men couldn't talk to each other in private, Gu Sanqizi and Li Ye were two living examples there, and there were more and more small reports, and no one knew when and which of their inadvertent words reached the ears of Master Ma, this is not a joke - light palms, heavy arrows to parade camps, Lord Ma is like a great enemy for nothing, and sends many ears and eyes to inquire about all kinds of news, on the contrary, the real city defense doesn't care at all. Master Ma seems to have held a belief that as long as people gather, it is an intolerable potential threat to the imperial court, and must be severely extinguished. After eight or nine months, there are fewer and fewer soldiers on duty on the wall and at the door, and everyone takes care of the sun by themselves in winter, and finds a cool place to take a nap in the summer.

The soldiers on the west wall were squatting against the wall to avoid the sun, but finally the soldiers who got up to relieve themselves found the Nuoda fleet sailing into the Qinglong Stream from the Yellow River, and the horse team that was already lined up on the opposite bank. Behind the horse team, there was a forest of swords and guns shining in the sun, which was Gu Baihua's strong battalion. Looking to the west again, the endless stream of troops from the bend of the mountain into the line of sight, the winding mountain road, like a hideous dragon, one after another spit out of the dragon's mouth, with murderous and firm steps, as if never-ending.

The soldier rubbed his eyes, making sure that this was not his hallucination, and opened his mouth wide in horror, but he could not utter a whole sentence, and pointed to the front, "Ah, ah, ah", and the others got up one after another, looked in the direction of their fingers, and then, too, were stunned by the terrible sight before them.

"Police"!

"Close the gates!" Finally someone understood, and the probe shouted hoarsely to the city.

The location of Shaanzhou is important, but the city is not big, there are only four main city gates: the East Day Xuanwei Gate, the West Day Zhengping Gate, the south is called Yingen Gate, and the north is called Xuanhua Gate.

Zhengping Gate is close to Qinglong Stream, no one has crossed the river for several days, two city gate guards who deal with errands are napping in the door hole, one south and one north, the soldiers who shouted on the wall for a long time see that no one pays attention, some run down along the horse road to find the city gate guard, and some rush to the city state government to report - unfortunately, the gong that called the police is locked in the city gate tower, and the flag officer who should have been on duty the day before yesterday because of his mouth, was hit by the board of the horse, and at the moment he was still lying on the bed board humming, the key, and still hanging behind the door panel in the house.

Because of the topography, the people outside the city lived outside the Yingen Gate in the south. Not far from the Zhengping Gate to the west is the Qinglongjian River Beach, and the North Gate and the East Gate are also facing the river, and there are no common people's dwellings - that is, because there are corners of the city wall blocking the view, the people are not aware of the approaching army!

By the time Ma Zhizhou ran up the Zhengpingmen city wall in horror, nearly half of the pontoon bridge in Guoqinglin had been built. On the water on both sides of the pontoon bridge, the soldiers of the three infantry teams of the Tianyi Battalion bluffed with knives and guns on the small boats - in fact, including themselves, everyone knew that this kind of trick to scare people had no practical effect at all: there were no big boats, and there were more than a dozen or less five or six soldiers on each small boat, and if they did not go ashore, there was no threat, they really went ashore, there was no auxiliary force to build fortifications in advance, and there was no cavalry to respond, as long as the city launched a real counterattack, these two or three hundred people were A, Maybe it's just a little more than a meal, and the big army on the other side of the river can only stare dryly! Therefore, although You Futian understood that he had to sacrifice his battalion as a last resort, he was still silently praying in his heart: Don't counterattack...... Well, at least wait until the Gu Manzi brothers cross the river before fighting, in that case, it will be their people who die, and I still expect the old man of Tianyi Battalion to dominate the water army.

Everyone understands the principle of starting first...... It's a pity that this "everyone" does not include Ma Wensheng Ma Zhizhou!

On weekdays, the majestic man who almost engraved the word "loyalty" on his head is like a toad that has been struck by lightning, staring at the city with his eyes and mouth open......

In the middle of the night, under the urging of everyone, Master Ma trembled his lips and finally issued the first order: "Close the city gate!" All the gates were shut up at once, and they were put on top of the big stones. ”

Hearing this, Pan Ding, the same governor of Shaanzhou, hurriedly said: "My lord, do you want to gather the people in the south of the city first?" ”

Jing Xiangshan, the state judge, shouted at the same time: "Master Ma, I can't help it!" There are two or three thousand households in the south of the city! We should gather the people, burn down the houses, and clear the walls...... I am willing to lead the soldiers in the city to face the head-on attack, even if I fight to the death, I will buy most of the time for the adults! ”

Marven angrily pointed at the city: "Bastard! So many thieves, you see, move so fast, where is there time! As he spoke, he pointed at the tip of Jing Xiangshan's nose, "You take people out?" You&&all the people, what are the officials going to defend the city? ”

Jing Xiangshan argued to himself: "My lord, you and I eat the king's fortune, and it is within our own responsibility to ensure the safety of the people, and we dare not quit even if we are broken." We can't afford to watch the people fall into the hands of thieves! At this time, the thieves have not yet gained a foothold, and it is time to face the attack! I implore you to think twice! ”

Pan Ding also said to the side: "My lord, Lord Jing is reasonable." Since Lord Jing sacrificed his life to block the enemy, he was willing to take the officials to the south of the city to gather the people. Swore an oath that the emperor was above, and Pan should do his best and be the last to enter the city. If this oath is violated, Pan is willing to be punished by heaven! ”

At this time, Ma Wensheng returned to his previous fierceness: "Shut up Lao Tzu!" Close the gates now! No one is allowed in! If there is no internal response, how can the thief come so quickly? You have repeatedly obstructed, do you want to open the city to sacrifice the enemy? Whoever dares to talk nonsense and delay again is a thief! ”

Pan and Jing looked at each other. Jing Xiangshan's face turned red, and the green tendons on his forehead throbbed violently, he never expected that he, who belonged to a civilian official and had decided to die generously to sacrifice his life to resist the enemy, would be accused by Master Ma of delaying the thief! Out of anger, but there is nothing to be done, full of anger has nowhere to vent, stamping his feet, angrily "hey", people seem to explode.

Pan Ding's performance was much calmer, stunned for a moment, and then turned to the direction of Jingshi and shook deeply, and muttered in his mouth: "Holy Lord, the minister has the grace of the saint!" Two lines of tears welled up in the eyes, slowly down the face, and then down the beard under the chin, hanging at the tip of the beard, becoming a large round drop, the sun shone on the teardrops, and in an instant reflected a beautiful multicolor, and then, dripping, smashed down to the wall and ground, quickly swallowed by the masonry, and disappeared.

Ma Wensheng shouted hoarsely to close the city gate as he ran along the city wall. Before he reached the southern corner, he couldn't run breathlessly, his hands pressed to his knees, hunched over his waist and gasping, and from time to time he raised his head and cursed and threatened, and the soldiers ran away along the city wall like headless flies, conveying the orders of Lord Ma along the way.

At this time, outside the west gate, the construction of the pontoon bridge was nearing completion, and the auxiliaries, who did not feel any threat, were firmly ramming the last few planks into the land on the river beach with spikes.

Gu Baisong's long knife led to the city tower, his legs clamped the horse's belly, and he took the lead in stepping on the pontoon bridge with a shake of the reins.

The horse's hooves were obtained, followed by Gu Baisong, and the horse team crossed the bridge.

Subsequently, Gu Baisong took the lead and stood outside the city gate. After a gap of two zhang, more than 200 knights were divided into four small formations behind the Gu team officer, and each small formation had a horse officer in front of him. The crowd raised their heads and cast their cold gazes towards the city.