Volume 2 The Smoke Rises Chapter 83 The Battle of Changzhou (6)
Taking advantage of the fact that Wu Yuejun's attack was about to retreat, Ning Guojun broke through the secret door on the city wall and attacked on all fronts.
The 1st and 2nd Brigades attacked simultaneously from the two secret gates on the north and south of the east wall, while the 3rd Brigade held the east gate with one regiment, and the other two regiments chose whether to be attached to the two roads or to be strengthened in one direction depending on the progress of the north and south roads. The division's guard battalion, reconnaissance battalion, and cavalry battalion were used as reserves, and the Changzhou Army, including the Changzhou Army, was also drawing elites from various places to form two more ironclad 1,000-man teams to be prepared for the eventuality.
Cui Feihu went out of the secret gate with the first battalion of the Fourth Regiment, and rolled back through the river crossing channel filled in by Wu Yuejun. Li Congyi opened a number of secret doors on the inside of the city wall, and chose this place to make Ning Guojun's soldiers and horses attack and hit Wu Yuejun's waist. When the first battalion crossed the river, they led with pikemen, followed by crossbowmen, and sword and shield men protected the flanks and attacked in the direction of the siege road.
Wen Yuanliang, the deputy commander of the left wing of the Shangzhi Army, was in charge of the attack here, and when he saw this, he ordered the troops that were originally preparing to attack the city wall to turn around and block on the spot, and at the same time organize several battalions around to form a second line of defense. He also sent someone to inform the left wing of the left wing to the south to switch from attack to defense.
The first to engage in the battle was the Song Army's Shi Jingshan Division. Shi Jingshan retreated from the road, and the team of 100 people at the beginning had nearly 60 people at this time. Shi Jingshan didn't want to fall into the reputation of the Song soldiers, so he immediately set up a conical array to attack this Changzhou army. But this spearman in front of the Changzhou army has a spear, and the tip of the spear is as long as half a gun, and it is even more open-edged, dazzling in the afternoon sun. An inch long and an inch strong, but as long as someone is bullied closely, this spear is useless.
The first battalion walked forward unhurriedly to the beat of the drum, like Xu Shishu, and soon reached Shi Jingshan more than ten steps in front of him, Shi Jingshan shouted and led the team to charge, and saw Tang Jun stop at a moment's notice, put down his spear, and then the first row turned around and turned the side to himself. Shi Jingshan had already rushed to him at this time, and he couldn't stop, and he was about to rush up with a loud shout, when he saw a stab from the Tang soldiers in the first row.
Shi Jingshan shouted badly, and in his desperation, there was an iron plate bridge, and he barely escaped the spurt of the three spears. Shi Jingshan exerted force at the waist, and just stood up, the second row of Tang soldiers stepped forward, turned around, and then spear thrust. Shi Jingshan's soul was all rising, holding a knife up, he could knock a spear up, and then rolled on the ground, rolling a few steps away, and before he got up, several crossbow arrows flew in, one of which was nailed to his chest. But there are crossbowmen who see that he is very good and are unwilling to give him another chance, so they shoot several people. Before Shi Jingshan died, he only saw the pikeman closest to him, and his eyes behind the iron mask just glanced at him coldly, then he put away his gun and resumed the marching column and continued to move forward. Shi Jingshan also exhaled his last breath, and the dozens of Song soldiers who were with him, except for more than ten people who fled in all directions, were already lying on the ground.
Shi Jingshan also delayed for a while, and at this time, Cui Feihu's second battalion of the fourth regiment had also crossed the river, and after crossing the river, it spread out to the east, forming a hollow phalanx to protect the flank of the first battalion, while the first battalion continued to attack south along the moatside avenue.
There was not much room for soldiers on the siege tunnels, and they could only charge in formation at a time, so there should be at least one or two battalions under each wall to fight in turns. Even on Shi Jingshan's side, there was also a battalion holding the position, and when he saw Shi Jingshan, he lasted for a few breaths, and he was wiped out. This battalion of Wu Yuejun was also shocked. The commander of the battalion also lost his sharpness, so he ordered the shield soldiers to be in the front, and the spearmen to be in the rear, forming a circle formation, like a hedgehog.
The two sides were not far apart, and as soon as the battalion of Wu Yuejun had set up their position, the first battalion of the fourth regiment had already entered the best range of 150 crossbow arrows, and immediately nearly 100 crossbow arrows were thrown in turn in three batches. The Wu Yue army personnel gathered indecently, and in the best range of crossbow arrows, a piece collapsed in the middle of the circle immediately, and when the fourth regiment and one battalion entered the firing range of fifty paces, the commander of the Wu Yue military battalion was wounded by an arrow, and the battalion collapsed.
At this time, another battalion of the upper army under the next wall also rushed over, and barely drove the rout away, and the four regiments and one battalion were already in front of them, so they could only engage in haste. However, as soon as the Shangzhi army battalion rushed up, the Tang army's pikemen immediately stood, turned around, and flanked, while the crossbowmen behind the pikemen used free fire to mend their swords, killing individual Wu Yuejun, who was highly skilled in martial arts, on the spot. The pikemen made six rounds of spurs, and the battalion was broken up again.
The street on the edge of the moat, one side of the river is the river, and the houses on the other side were demolished in large numbers for the siege of the Wu and Yue army, bricks and tiles were used for trebuchets, wood was used for camping, and gravel and clay were used to fill in the road. Wen Yuanliang, the deputy commander of the left wing of the Shangzhi Army, saw that the two consecutive battalions could not be supported for a moment and were broken, and knew that it was tricky, so he ordered a battalion to go around the ruins to the flank of the Tang Army and attack from the side.
Seeing this, the battalion commander of the first battalion of the fourth regiment only sneered, did not care at all, and only ordered to continue the assault. Although Wen Yuanliang personally supervised the battle, the two battalions on the left side of the third road only held out for a moment before giving way to the passage. Watching the Tang army rumble forward, Wen Yuan's conscience was not good, but looking at the battalion that intended to flank the Tang army on the ruins, he was forced back by a wave of crossbow arrows at the slightest impact, and the Tang army's sword and shield squad, when they saw the opportunity, they took the initiative to attack from the queue, relying on one or two wheelbarrows, advancing and retreating together, and beat the sharp soldiers of that battalion to the back.
Wen Yuanliang had 3,000 soldiers and horses under the road, but due to the battlefield environment, there were only more than 1,000 people below the road and by the moat, and another 2,000 soldiers and horses were still on the streets behind. Wen Yuanliang was still hesitating, whether to order all units to immediately attack along the main streets, engage the Tang army in a tangled battle, and buy time for the left direct division, or assemble troops and horses, attack after the rear, and flank the left direct division on both sides. Cui Feihu had already made a choice for him.
After Cui Feihu went out of the secret gate with the 1st Battalion, he immediately set up a command post of the brigade headquarters in a place with a good view on the left, and at the same time ordered the headquarters of the 4th Regiment to quickly move south. After the Fifth Regiment also came out of the secret gate, he immediately ordered the Fifth Regiment to sweep along several streets on the east side of the moat street with battalions as a unit to ensure the safety of the flank of the First Regiment. The Fifth Regiment swept south along the north-south streets, and then fought with the remaining soldiers and horses of Wen Yuanliang's department.
In street fighting, pikemen can almost ignore threats from both sides and sweep forward with their spears. In the face of this new tactic, Wu Yue's army could not attack, defend, and could not shoot crossbow arrows, and a little heavy armor was quickly submerged in the spear array, and it was quickly defeated. This rout was no longer easy to contain, and even Wen Yuanliang was coerced by the defeated army to go south.
To the south is the forward camp of the left straight left carriage. If more than 4,000 people in the left wing of the left wing also collapsed, the situation was unimaginable, Wen Yuanliang tried to stop the defeated troops several times, or lead the defeated troops to the east, but every time there was a slight effect, the Tang army arrived, and then collapsed again.
At this time, the left wing of the left wing also exchanged hands with the fourth regiment, and the first battalion of the fourth regiment fought smoothly all the way, but still suffered a small loss when the camp was in front of the left wing.
Under the advice of Xiong Yuanjia, the commander of the military capital, Zhang Zhi, the commander of the left wing, was also quite concerned about the safety of the advancing camp. Here, with the southern wall of the city on his back, he built a half-man-high breastwork as a base, and dug a trench, so that once the attacking troops were counterattacked, they would retreat into the fortress to resist and wait for rescue. Zhang Zhi saw that something was wrong with the north side of the siege road, so he ordered the attacking troops to retreat, and at this time there were nearly 4,000 people nesting in this advance camp.
The first battalion of the fourth regiment came up and directly attacked the camp gate, but as a result, several bed crossbows were fired at the gate of the left-straight military camp, and the first battalion broke more than a dozen people on the spot. Wang Hongfeng, the commander of the first battalion, hesitated slightly, and then remembered Jiang Guogong's request before the war: "There is no advance and no retreat, and I am invincible!" He resisted the command of the whole battalion to turn, and then the three battalions followed suit. At that moment, Wang Hongfeng's heart was horizontal, and he ordered the drumming to stop. After withstanding three bed crossbow blows and paying the price of casualties one platoon, the four regiments and one battalion were able to enter the optimal range of crossbow arrows within 150 paces. At this time, the commander of the fourth regiment who came with the third battalion, Qiu Chen, the deputy commander of the left wing of the former Ning National Army, also rushed over, and while urgently ordering the crossbowmen of the third battalion to run forward, strengthen to the crossbowmen of the first battalion, and increase the firepower of crossbow arrows, at the same time, while ordering the third battalion to speed up and catch up and go around from the right to participate in the breaking of the camp, and at the same time ordered the guard company, engineer company and other units under the regiment to immediately build fortifications to prevent the front attack from being unfavorable and there was no place to support when retreating.
The pikemen of the Ning army were on the front line, all wearing iron armor and face armor, and occasionally the soldiers were shot in the neck by elite archers, but most of them were unhindered. However, almost all the crossbowmen were armourless, and they also exchanged fire with a large number of archers in the left-hand barracks, and the crossbowmen of the first battalion suffered heavy casualties, that is, Wang Hongfeng was also hit by a stray arrow on his left arm, and he just bandaged it indiscriminately, and then gritted his teeth and continued to move forward.
Walking to the front of the camp gate, the crossbowmen of the second battalion also arrived, and a wave of crossbow arrows made the sword and shield men who were directly in front of the camp gate wail. But for the left-right soldiers, it was terrible that these pikemen, against everyone's bows and arrows, did not run or rush, but just step after step. When I was about to get to the camp gate, I heard Tang Jun shouting: "There is no advance or retreat, and I am invincible!" ”
Two teams of sword and shield soldiers on the left and right sides rushed up, rushed with wheelbarrows, and the camp gate shook, and more than 20 people pulled back, and the camp gate fell to the ground in an uproar. And when the pikemen reached the camp gate, they began to spurge.
At this time, Zhang Zhicai, the commander of the left chamber, realized that he had made a fatal mistake. Tang Jun didn't give him time to calm down at all, he rushed in so straight, and in the face of Tang Jun's gun array, it was that little person who could really fight. At this time, there were 4,000 people crowded into the barracks, and there was no room for deep defense.
When a battalion entered the barracks, it turned right and attacked. At this time, the third battalion also went around to the barracks, and after the crossbowmen fired a volley, some pikemen climbed over the breastwork, and at this time the first battalion came from the flank and back, and the left direct army in front of them could not support it and broke back. The second battalion immediately entered from the camp gate, and at this time the overall situation had been decided, and Qiu Chen, the commander of the fourth regiment, followed up with the regimental headquarters and commanded three battalions to drive Wu Yue's army out from the southwest to the northeast.
Under the rapid attack of the Ning Guo army, Wu Yue's army retreated once the front line could not stand, and there were too many people in the camp, and as soon as they retreated, they squeezed each other and retreated. Zhang Zhi could only order the front to hold on, while ordering the rear soldiers to withdraw from the camp, wanting to form another battle formation outside the camp.
The 4th Regiment threw a beautiful right hook in the advance camp of the Left Direct Army, driving the Left Direct Army eastward. Zhang Zhi's retreat order was given, and the Left Direct Army quickly turned into a rout. At this time, the fifth regiment had already penetrated the streets and appeared on the flank of the Left Direct Army. As soon as the First Left Army made contact with it, it was defeated and retreated. Zhang Zhi's team at the north gate of the camp finally couldn't control the situation, and countless soldiers fled over the breastwork, and even more soldiers worked together to tear down the breastwork, and fled northward, trying to escape from the gap in the east where the current Tang army had not yet been encircled. Zhang Zhi wanted to cry without tears, and he could only escape under the protection of the guard battalion.
The Left Straight Army broke and fled, and the resistance of the 4th Regiment's attack decreased sharply, and the 4th Regiment immediately adjusted its deployment, using the 1st Battalion to protect the flank, and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were rushing to the northeast, driving the rout to the northeast.