Chapter 380: Crossing the Ice River
Under Li Zhaoji's arrangement, the whole army immediately made preparations, threw away everything that was unnecessary, crossed the Hunhe River, and burned the pontoon bridge. Li Laiheng and the engineer battalion were the vanguard, Yang Yandi was the successor, Li Zhaoji led two infantry battalions, an artillery company, two armored cold weapon battalions and a huge baggage battalion to advance.
The march was fast at the beginning, but when Li Zhaoji's main force of the rear guard arrived in the area of Wujing Camp, the main cavalry led by Duoduo had already caught up, and this group of cavalry included the reinforcements brought by Duoduo from Guannei, one brought back by Mandahai and Bolo, a total of more than 7,000 horsemen.
Immediately, Li Zhaoji set the troops out of a giant phalanx, guarded the baggage battalion in the middle, and advanced slowly, because there were constantly cavalry harassment nearby, and each battalion had to stop from time to time to deal with the possible impact of the cavalry, so the speed of advance was very fast, but fortunately, because of Li Zhaoji's cover, Yang Yandi's troops advanced smoothly, and at the same time, the cavalry led by Li Laiheng also successfully found the preparatory site and erected a pontoon bridge.
And some things are also predestined.
When Li Zhaoji chose the reserve river crossing site, he chose the confluence of the Hunhe River and the Taizi River, and the reason why he chose this place is because the terrain here is extremely flat, so the river surface is extremely wide, and it can be waded in vain in the dry season in autumn and winter.
Because it is extremely flat, it is deserted, and there is no Zhuangtun in the vicinity of twenty or thirty miles. This is because the Manchu Qing was a semi-slave country, and did not have the ability of a feudal dynasty like the Ming Dynasty to govern the river, this confluence place, the terrain was flat, and after the arrival of the summer flood, there would be a big flood, and only by using a dam to restrain the river could the two banks be turned into fertile land, but for the Manchu Qing, this was almost impossible.
When choosing this location, Li Zhaoji could not have imagined that the Qing army would also cross the river nearby.
The pontoon bridge built by the Qing army Abatai was in the Huangniwa Fort, further downstream of the location selected by Li Zhaoji, only 17 kilometers away, Abatai's 3,000 elite cavalry, and the distance of 30 miles was completely within its control.
Each wants to protect its own pontoons, and they also want to destroy the other's.
As a result, in the four-day battle, Abatai, who arrived in advance to build the pontoon bridge, took the lead in completing the pontoon bridge, and the Han army had already begun to cross the river, and Yang Yandi, who had all the infantry, was only four days later than Li Laiheng, who had all the cavalry.
The two sides completed the handover on the same day, and considering the tremendous pressure faced by Li Zhaoji's rear team, Li Laiheng immediately led the main cavalry force to cross the river and go north to aid Li Zhaoji.
The weather in Liaodong was getting colder day by day, and when I crossed the river here, the water in the river was cold and biting, but when Li Laiheng's troops crossed the river, there was already a thin layer of ice at the low water level.
October 26, on the north bank of the Hunhe River.
Balai hurried into Yang Yandi's tent, with an arrow stuck in his shoulder, the back half of which had been cut off, and was still bubbling with blood.
"What's the matter, did you take the cavalry to the front again?" Yang Yandi said angrily, and while he ordered to find a military doctor to treat Balai's wounds, he said angrily: "I tell you again, only the living deserve to enjoy the glory and wealth that come from fighting for their lives."
You are no longer the lowly Dawcas, you are the personal follower of the commander, and you are the person he values.
You don't think you are so important, you are not Tang Mu, you will be reused if you are scolded. Do you understand? ”
Balai bowed his head, not daring to refute, and when the military medical forceps pulled out the arrow on his shoulder, he said: "General Yang, maybe I was wrong, but at least this time I saw valuable information.
On the south bank, Abatai's cavalry and Shi Tingzhu's Han army banner were already close to the ferry, and I only had more than three hundred cavalry, so it was impossible to stop them. ”
"Assemble and call Ferreira." Yang Yandi roared angrily.
At this time, Ferreira had returned to the Eastern Brigade, giving this strong team another strong general.
"Listen, Ferreira, I can only give you an infantry battalion, and the artillery company and sappers will also be handed over to you, and I want you to hold the pontoon bridge." Yang Yandi said to Ferreira while draped.
"Yes, I'll live and die with this pontoon." Ferreira said.
Yang Yandi nodded slightly, pointed at Balai and said, "This guy will also be handed over to you, don't let him die." ”
"General Yang......." Bale struggled to jump out of bed and grabbed Yang Yandi's clothes.
"If you tell me you want to go into battle and kill the enemy, I'll have someone tie you up immediately." Yang Yandi's eyes were full of coldness.
Balai waved his hand and took out a notebook from his bosom, which was described with a black pen some terrain, and Yang Yandi found that it was a little farther away from the south bank, the lines outlined the undulating sand dunes on the south bank, the dotted ones were swamps that were easy to sink into horseshoe, and the larger ones were reeds or bushes.
"Here...... The red-coated cannon of the Han army flag is here...... I am ........ "Balai lost so much blood that he pointed to a spot with his hand, and before he could finish speaking, he fainted.
Yang Yandi asked, "Do any of you know what he meant by what he didn't finish?" ”
One of the cavalrymen said: "General Balai was shot by the arrows of the Qing army in order to find out the situation on this sand dune." We saw with our own eyes that the Han army banner used horses and mules to transport the Hongyi cannons of the four-wheeled artillery cart to this sand dune, which is the commanding height nearby. ”
Yang Yandi nodded slightly, put away the book of soul drawing, and said to the cavalry: "Take care of Balai, he should survive and enjoy his exploits." ”
After that, Yang Yandi led the people out of the tent, and at this time the three infantry battalions had been assembled, because at least a quarter of the pontoon bridge had not been repaired, so the artillery could not cross the river. And all the boats and rafts were used by sappers.
"All the officers are out of the ranks." Yang Yandi shouted.
The company-level officers of each battalion came to Yang Yandi one after another, and in front of everyone, Yang Yandi took off his pants, revealing his thighs full of black hair, he stuffed his pants into his backpack, and fixed the arquebus, bullet belts, boots and socks in the backpack.
Then he said: "After a while, we will cross the river on foot, everyone must take off their pants, I will be the first to go down, the battalion commander will follow me, the company commander will follow the battalion commander, and the soldiers will be last." After crossing the river, wipe the water off your legs with a towel before putting on your pants.
You, like me, are from the South, and we have never seen ice in the river, nor have we ever hiked in such cold water.
But if I can do it, you will do it too. Let's get started........ ”
The cold and biting wind had frozen Yang Yandi's thighs red, and he walked into the ice water deeper than his knees without hesitation, stepped on the route taken by the cavalry, and walked all the way through the Hunhe River, and when he crossed the Hunhe River, his lips were already frozen blue, but he was still the first to go ashore, wiped the water on his body, and then put on his pants and put on all the weapons neatly.
With Yang Yandi as an example, the three infantry battalions of 1,800 infantry followed the same example, and successfully crossed the river, only two unlucky people tripped over the stones at the bottom of the river and were washed away, and some people walked through too deep water, so that their shirts were soaked in water, and these people were left by Yang Yandi, and the three fully equipped infantry battalions went all the way through the woods and the fortifications set up by the Shun army, and came to the flat ground.
It's really too flat here, and in history, the Hunhe River has been diverted here countless times, resulting in the river being several kilometers deep from north to south, which is actually an old river.
The only commanding heights are the sand dunes that were once formed by the siltation of the river, but the highest ones are only two or three feet above the ground, and the dunes rise and fall, creating a favorable terrain.
After Yang Yandi walked out of the bushes by the river, he immediately looked for the sand dunes marked by Balai, which were extremely large, and one after the other, so they were extremely conspicuous, and they were still at least two kilometers away from the river, and the Qing army had already appeared in Yang Yandi's field of vision.
Abatai's 3,000 cavalry, as well as a considerable number of Han troops stationed, in the telescope, Yang Yandi clearly saw the equipment of the Qing army.
The cavalry is still familiar, and most of the cavalry of the Qing army, which is known for its excellent armor, is equipped with cold weapons such as armor and bows and arrows, and it is impossible to see which part is mounted infantry and which part is real cavalry from the aspect of weapon allocation.
Judging from Yang Yandi's observation, the scale of this cavalry is five or six thousand, but it is obvious that he has thought too much, because the Qing army has more people and two horses, so the scale must be smaller than this. And this Qing army is in the south, and the big sand dunes are in the north, forming a corner trend, and you don't need to guess to know that Abatai will inevitably send some soldiers to protect the artillery positions on the dunes.
And there is a Han army in the middle of the main cavalry, Yang Yandi counted at least fifteen artillery carriages, the real number may be more, those are all light Franc machine guns, I can't tell what specifications it is, Yang Yandi has long heard Li Zhaoji say that the Han army flag is a heavy artillery unit in the Qing army, equipped with various types of Franc machines, the small one weighs three or five hundred catties, and the large one weighs two or three thousand catties.
It's just that since the landing in Liaodong, the Eastern Brigade has had very little contact with the artillery of the Qing army, so it is impossible to judge what kind of artillery the Han Army Banner brought this time.
"General Yang, the enemy has moved." Someone exclaimed.
Yang Yandi immediately went to see it and found that the main force of the Qing cavalry was protecting the artillery and slowly moving south, as if it was going to outflank Yang Yandi's retreat, of course, Yang Yandi could retreat and dodge, but the pontoon bridge had nowhere to hide and could only fight.
"Order the chasseur company to step forward to form a skirmish line, and each battalion will draw a grenadier company out of the ranks, and also form a skirmisher line, and we will attack." Yang Yandi said to the people around him.
The faces of the officers were a little nervous, in their short military career, they had not attacked without artillery support, but when they looked at Yang Yandi, the boss's face was full of confidence, and those eyes were full of contempt for the enemy.
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