Chapter 683 Only Win, Not Lose

"Yes!" The communications officer took the order and left.

"My lord, make a decision that morning." The waiting general urged.

Wu Qunlie raised his hand to stop, walking back and forth without saying a word.

It is really difficult for him to make a decision for a while, Meng Shanming will launch an attack at this time, how can there be a large number of Yan troops in Song's defense line? Logically speaking, it is impossible! If there are a large number of people crossing the river, it is impossible not to notice that the main force of the Yan army has been staring at the other side.

For him, the situation was a bit complicated for a while.

Although the main force in the Hukou Defense Zone is only 300,000, Zhang Hu and the Yan Kingdom have a total of about 600,000 troops. The Hukou Defense Zone is at a disadvantage, but this is not a ground war. It is the land facing the water, and the Hukou defense zone occupies a favorable condition.

Moreover, there are more than a few prerequisites here. It is logically impossible for Zhang Hu to break through the defense line of the 300,000 defenders in the Hukou Defense Zone with a simple raft crossing the river at night. The freedom of movement of the raft on the river is not only a little worse than that of the boat.

Behind the Hukou defense area, there were a large number of Yan army troops, and this was what worried him.

Now he urgently needs to know the movements of Xu Jingyue and other troops on the opposite bank. Don't be fooled by the movement in the Hukou defense area, it's a trick to divert the tiger away from the mountain.

...

Xu Jingyue's department, after receiving the military order from Meng Shanming, the men and horses were mobilizing on the riverside, manipulating rafts, and the movement was vigorous.

Although the rain is less, it is still drizzle, and it is still rainy and windy. The riverside is full of fire, and there are moving torches everywhere.

Xu Jingyue stood on the embankment in the rain, holding the sword at his waist with one hand, looking at the lights on the other side in the distance.

The general came quickly, "My lord, you are ready to attack at any time."

Xu Jingyue wiped the rainwater off her face with one hand, "Did I say attack? Don't stop, continue to put on an attacking posture, create a movement, make it big! Go out and stroke the wooden raft, come back, and repeat it several times .”

The general said in astonishment, "A feint?"

Xu Jingyue: "Don't ask me, I don't know what's going on. Since Meng Shuai made this order, there must be a deep meaning, and there is nothing to lose. It is right for everyone to practice the skills of driving rafts on the river."

He really didn't know what was going on. The actions of Zhang Hu's department were top secret from the beginning. Except for some direct participants, only the decision makers knew, and everyone else would hide it, and it was impossible for too many people to know.

At this time, not only Xu Jingyue's department, but An Xianzhao's department, Su Qitong's department, and Shi Xinmao's department were all making a big noise by the river.

The Yan army launched a full-scale offensive.

...

Meng Shanming was also on the bank of the river, and he got out of the tent to watch the army cross the river and fight in person.

Under the firelight at night, a monk held a big umbrella to protect the people in the wheelchair from the rain. Gong Lince also stood beside the wheelchair and watched. The scene of hundreds of thousands of people crossing the river was very spectacular.

There are countless large and small wooden rafts. The largest wooden raft is so big that it can accommodate hundreds of soldiers at the same time.

"Report! The news came from the spies that Qingqu's 300,000 people are moving towards the mouth of the pot at high speed." A general came to Meng Shanming to report urgently.

Meng Shanming nodded, indicating that he knew.

After the general retreated, Gong Lince tried to ask: "Is Meng Shuai not worried at all when the reinforcements arrive?"

Meng Shanming: "It will take half a day for the troops from the direction of Qingqu to arrive. If we can't break through the Hukou defense zone before dawn, there is no need to fight anymore. It doesn't matter whether the opponent's reinforcements come or not."

Gong Lince: "Once Song's follow-up reinforcements arrive, can our troops crossing the river handle it?"

"The rest of the Song army's Jiangfang troops have been pinned down, and they dare not act rashly. How dare they come to help. Although the Song army's Jiangfang troops have an advantage, defense itself is a disadvantage. The attacker can attack any point at any time, and can find its weak link at any time. To launch an attack, you only need to break one point, and the defense line will be broken by itself, so blindly defending is not the best defense, and both offense and defense are the best defense." When Meng Shanming said this, he turned his head and looked at Luo Daan. It didn't seem to be explaining to Gong Lince, but rather to Luo Da'an.

Everyone looked at Luo Daan, and Luo Daan nodded thoughtfully.

...

"It's almost there, reinforcements are coming, withdraw!"

Sun Gaotian, the right commander who commanded 5,000 troops to attack the food storage area at night, gave an order, and the attackers immediately stopped and retreated quickly.

This sudden evacuation caught the defenders in the food storage area by surprise.

"The poor don't chase after them!"

Seeing that his subordinates were about to lead his men in pursuit, the chief general guarding the granary stopped immediately.

He has his concerns, how to chase after this dark night? What if you fall into an ambush?

His main duty here is not to kill the enemy, but to protect the food that the army chews.

While the guardians were rebuilding and rectifying the defense, a fire dragon came in the distance, and 100,000 reinforcements sent by Xu Laiping, the commander of the Hukou section defense area, arrived.

As soon as the men and horses of the two sides met, they realized that the enemy's sneak attack had retreated.

On the way, the evacuated night raiders found out that more than 500 people had been lost. Although Sun Gaotian was in a heavy heart, he was somewhat relieved. Fortunately, the other party didn't know the depth and dared not take the initiative to attack, otherwise the 500 lives might be in danger. fill.

After withdrawing for a period of time, Zhang Hu, who received the news from here, issued an order to this side again, ordering this side to set up an ambush on the retreat road of the granary reinforcements to prevent the 100,000 people from retreating. Blocking, buying time for the main force to break through the Song Army's defense line.

Sun Gaotian then led his men and horses to march in a hurry, and rushed to the location designated by Zhang Hu, a narrow mountainous area, and the road in the middle was also the only way for the granary reinforcements to retreat.

Regardless of being tired and tired, Sun Gaotian ordered his troops to immediately construct barriers, such as cutting down trees or pushing down rocks to prevent possible reinforcements from passing by.

Although I don't know if the reinforcements at the granary will retreat, we still have to make thorough preparations here. It is necessary to know that there is an army of 100,000. It is impossible to stop them with only a few thousand people. We must build enough When obstacles come, relying on favorable obstacles can delay enemy reinforcements as much as possible.

Fortunately, there are still quite a few monks here, and this group of monks took the initiative to invite Ying, and under Sun Gaotian's guidance, they quickly built obstacles that are conducive to blocking the attack here.

As for the thousands of troops, Sun Gaotian ordered them to eat and rest quickly.

On this dark rainy night, on this muddy ground, thousands of people sat down to rest like this, taking out dry food soaked in water with dirty hands and gobbling it up. All of them have long since lost their human form, so it doesn't matter if they are dirty or not, as long as some are good to eat.

Zhang Hu has been on the battlefield for a long time, and his precautions in advance are not unreasonable.

Xu Laiping, the commander of the Hukou defense area, quickly realized that something was wrong, and suspected that he had been tricked. After the troops on the other side started to attack, they immediately knew the seriousness.

Once the line of defense here is lost, the door to the Song Kingdom will be opened, and he will become the eternal sinner of the Song Kingdom.

He decisively abandoned the granary, or in other words, the loss of the granary was no longer important. At this time, the defense line was the most important thing. If the food was lost, he could still find a way. Once the defense line was breached, the consequences would be disastrous.

He urgently ordered the 100,000 troops who rushed to the granary to withdraw quickly.

Later, he received a message from Wu Qunlie, the governor of Jiangfang, which proved his judgment was correct. Wu Qunlie also meant to let him immediately withdraw the reinforcements from the granary and concentrate on defending the Hukou defense line. One hundred thousand troops came to help, and if any accident happened, no matter what, they had to wait until Qingqu's reinforcements arrived.

In short, it is to defend the Hukou line of defense at all costs, and the granary is not important anymore!

Xu Laiping's actions reached the front, and the 100,000 reinforcements sent out quickly retreated.

The offensive and defensive battle on the river started, the two sides were fighting loudly, and the densely packed wooden platoons obliquely inserted towards the opposite bank by the speed of the flow.

Fireballs on the shore streaked across the drizzle night sky.

When it hits the river, it floats like a flaming lantern, and something like a cage continues to float and burn on the river.

When it hit the wooden raft, the oil pots and earthen pots in the cage were immediately smashed, and the flames of the fireball exploded immediately. The person who was splashed with kerosene and burned screamed horribly, jumping into the water no matter whether they were water-based or not. go down.

Some people beat the fire on their bodies, and some people splashed water on wooden boards to put out the fire.

The area along the east bank of the pitch-black river was filled with flames in an instant. If there were no killing sounds and shrill screams, it might have been a beautiful sight.

The stones thrown by the catapult roared from the river bank and smashed into the densely packed wooden rafts on the river surface. The screams, the sound of the wooden rafts cracking, mixed with the smashed rumbling giant statue resounded through the night sky.

"Fire the arrows!" The guards by the river roared with their swords. A group of archers bent their bows and shot in volley. The dark shadows of the arrows whizzed away in the night sky, and countless people on the river screamed.

Some wooden rafts stopped sporadically in the heart of the river, all relying on a group of monks to cast spells to keep them from drifting. Standing on the wooden rafts were the chief generals in charge of each department.

Zhang Hu came to the front line of the attack in person, stood on a wooden raft, and also drew his sword and roared: "Attack! Those who retreat indiscriminately will be killed!"

He is forcing the imperial court's troops to play the vanguard. Some people who can jump into the river and swim back will be immediately stained with blood from dense arrows, or some monks will slash the law enforcement with a sword. In short, it is to force The army rushed forward desperately.

Meng Shanming said that this battle is about Dayan's life and death, only victory is allowed, not defeat, so he is taking human lives to pile up!

Jiang Fang's offensive was too fierce, it was difficult for the personnel here to get ashore, and even those who rushed ashore sporadically could not withstand the massacre of the enemy.

The two sides in the war fell into a stalemate.

In another place, the 100,000 retreating reinforcements finally encountered obstacles where they had to pass. Facing the impact of 100,000 horses, more than 4,000 soldiers fought bloody battles among the obstacles set up. To describe it, even the monks who accompanied the army all went into battle to fight the enemy desperately.

During the attack on Jiang'an, after a lot of intense consumption and the arrow attack on the bank was a little tired, Zhang Hu gave an order, and a large number of monks from the country of Yan began to rush to Jiang'an.

Groups of monks from the Song Kingdom flew out immediately to meet the incoming monks from the Yan Kingdom. The two sides fought desperately on the river, and entered the water.

Seeing that a large number of monks from the Song Kingdom had been lured out and entangled, Zhang Hu, who was showing a ferocious look under the firelight, suddenly turned his head and said sharply: "Send an order to the left commander Guo Xianfu, and the ambush will attack immediately!"

PS: Thank you "Zhengzhou Binge" for the reward!