Under the sky, on the banks of the Qiantang River, the war between the Song and Wu armies was in full swing. Hundreds of thousands of troops from both sides were spread out, almost occupying the entire plain of dozens of miles outside Hangzhou.
This was a head-on confrontation without any tricks at all. All the conspiracies and formations had lost their effect the moment the two armies clashed. Even the crossbows that were supposed to be very effective were not used by many people. . Because the two teams have been completely mixed together under the attack of each other, it is uncertain who will be hit by shooting an arrow, it is better to fight with swords and guns, which is more direct and effective.
At this moment, all the soldiers turned red-eyed and roared the most ferocious screams. They rushed forward like bloodthirsty and cruel beasts, stabbing the enemy with all their strength with the weapons in their hands. There was no need to retreat and there was no way out. , they can only move forward, and then move forward, until they are swallowed up by a more violent torrent of offensive.
After the battle instantly became intense and continued to deepen, various problems hidden in the seemingly powerful Song Dynasty official army, which had won repeated battles and had overwhelming momentum, slowly emerged, thus beginning to affect the direction of the entire war situation, turning this A complacent army that thought it was sure of victory was dragged into the abyss of disastrous defeat—
The first is the lack of physical fitness in each army. On the surface, the morale of the Song army's march south to attack Hangzhou was high, but in fact the situation inside was far from that optimistic. In the past month, they have traveled hundreds of miles and fought dozens of battles, big and small. Although each battle has ended with a great victory, it still consumed a lot of mental and physical energy of the soldiers. Although it cannot be said that they have reached the end of the war, they have long been defeated. Veterans are tired.
However, Zhang Gun and other generals were eager to conquer the city and did not follow Sun Tu's advice to give their troops a full rest before heading south again. Just now, they had marched dozens of miles in a hurry, arriving from Lin'an to Hangzhou in half a day. The soldiers were already exhausted. Then they faced off against the Wu army who had been recharging their strength for a long time. The strength of the army would naturally change quickly as time went by. Clearly.
Secondly, Song Jun was still caught off guard. Although this battle was a frontal battle, and it would not be an exaggeration to call it an encounter, it actually exceeded everyone's expectations. Because in their imagination, Wu Jun, who had been defeated in consecutive battles, had lost many cities, and even Hangzhou was about to become an isolated city, should have stayed behind closed doors. How could there be any reason to take the initiative to attack
But Wu Jun took the initiative to send troops in a way that surprised everyone, and it was the most straightforward and direct confrontation. This suppressed the Song army in terms of momentum. At the same time, because they were unprepared, many soldiers did not even put on their armor in order to facilitate the journey. Once the war started, the Song army was at a disadvantage in terms of weapons and equipment, and therefore suffered more casualties.
Finally, it was because the Song army was not of one mind. This is an army formed by the merger of three Xiang armies, namely Gyeonggi, Huaibei and Jingnan, which do not belong to each other. Although they are the Song army as a whole, they lack a commander who can lead the entire army. Zhang Gun, Xu Shen and Ren Shifan all have equal positions and prestige. They could not prioritize them before, and now it is even more impossible to decide who should take the lead.
If such a discordant team is fighting a smooth battle, there will naturally be no problems. All soldiers will be able to move forward bravely and cooperate seamlessly. But once the wind goes against the wind, the problem of little cooperation and trust between each other will be completely magnified. Although it will not become a mess, it will hardly be a tie.
Unify and resist the enemy's fierce offensive.
Fang Shifo, who took the lead and attacked fiercely at the front of the team, became the catalyst for exposing various problems in the Song Army. After Huang Mao was killed with two hammers, he became unstoppable. The two hammers in his hands were swung like two yellow clouds, and he rushed into the Song army, just like a tiger entering a flock of sheep. In front of him, there was almost no enemy. He killed four or five Song troops who tried to intercept them, and a bloody road leading directly to the central army in the rear was opened up by him alone with two to three thousand soldiers.
Faced with such a murderous god coming down to earth, the Song Army was completely frightened. Many people did not dare to block his path anymore, and they all moved to the side. The morale of the army fell to the bottom, and there was no way between the armies. Assisting each other, the decline is obvious.
In this situation, the Wu army was extremely powerful, and their attacks became more and more fierce. Wave after wave of offensives could completely overwhelm and engulf the Song army in front at any time.
On top of the city, Pang Wanchun was overjoyed. Both he and Wu needed such a big victory to change the current situation. The previous successive defeats, coupled with the instigation of various domestic forces, have made this newly established regime shaky. Only a hearty victory can shock Xiaoxiao and stabilize people's hearts.
At this moment, there suddenly came from behind him a cry of kneeling down on the ground and a mountainous cry: "I will bow to your majesty..." He was startled, and he turned around and saw Fang La wearing a dragon robe in Fang Fei. Waiting for the courtiers and hundreds of imperial guards to stride up to the city. This made him no longer care to continue staring at the battle below, and hurriedly greeted him: "Your Majesty, why are you here? Although our army is in sight of victory, it is too dangerous here after all... "
Fang La laughed, waved his hands nonchalantly and said: "Everyone, please get up, no need to be polite. The soldiers are killing the enemy for me on the front line, how can I, as the king of Wu, stay in the palace with peace of mind? Today I not only I want to witness this great victory with my own eyes, and even more, I want to cheer for the generals by beating the drums!" As he said that, he strode to a big drum standing in the northwest corner of the city, and shouted at the soldiers who were still beating the drums. Hand: "Give me the drumstick!"
The soldier felt a surge of excitement, and without much thought, he respectfully presented the drumstick. Fang La took it, laughed again, then used his arms to exert energy on his Dantian, and roared: "Wu will win!" He waved his hands down continuously, and the drumsticks hit the drum head hard.
"Dong dong dong dong..." The fierce and majestic drumbeats sounded from the top of the city again, reaching through the sky and reaching the battlefield several miles away.
All the ministers and soldiers at the top of the city were stunned. Only a few ministers such as Fang Fei and Jiang Shihu had calm faces, and there was some strong belief in their eyes - when the king of a country ran to the top of the city regardless of his identity, he took risks. When the drums are beaten to cheer for the entire army, the encouraging effect on the frontline soldiers will be unimaginable.
Not only the soldiers, but also the courtiers, who were as steady as Pang Wanchun, were all hot-blooded and breathing rapidly. They just wanted to join the battlefield and fight the invading Song army to kill these people who had exploited them and now killed them. Countless enemy troops of the Paoze brothers were completely killed and driven out of the Wu Kingdom!
Even the courtiers at the top of the city were like this. The soldiers of the Wu army who were fighting bravely below were naturally even more inspired. The whole army was completely boiling!
At first, they felt a little strange why the drum sound at the head of the city suddenly stopped. Could it be that an enemy suddenly went around to the back of their home to launch an attack on Hangzhou City? Some people subconsciously turned their heads to look, and then saw a scene that stunned them. The emperor in emperor's robes was actually beating the drum himself!
At this time, Fang La's brilliance was reflected in not changing into ordinary clothes that were easier to carry out. If he had changed his clothes, the fact that he, as the emperor, beat drums to cheer the soldiers would not have been immediately known to the Wu army soldiers far below. But things are different now. The bright yellow dragon robe and crown are so dazzling under the setting sun. Just by glancing at it from a distance, almost everyone can instantly confirm that the drum beater is their Emperor.
Afterwards, this shocking news spread quickly among the Wu army like a gust of wind. When everyone looked back curiously and saw this exciting scene, the fighting spirit in everyone's hearts was completely ignited. The Wu army's offensive instantly increased to more than twice the previous level. Everyone was yelling and screaming like crazy, attacking the Song army in front like crazy. It was so devastating that they actually wiped out more than 20,000 soldiers in front of them in one battle. The queue was in disarray, and the front of the troops was pointed directly at the central army in front.
It was also at this time that the three generals in the Central Military Department realized that something was wrong. This time it was really a disaster. Not only will it be difficult to capture the city of Hangzhou, but it may also be completely defeated here.
The emotion of regret instantly filled the minds of the generals. If they had known this, they should have listened to Sun Tu's advice and waited for the arrival of the Shandong Army before attacking Hangzhou.
what to do? Such a question popped up in everyone's mind, and they looked at each other, unable to come up with an accurate idea for a while. Just like the troops and horses under their command, these three generals are only good at fighting against the wind. Once they are at a disadvantage, they will be at a loss.
"Military formation... Yes, we can still use military formation. We can no longer fight randomly like this. Let the soldiers gather quickly and form a military formation to defend against the enemy!" Xu Shen's mind was the most clear-headed and flexible, and he finally thought of a solution in desperation. The solution to the current predicament was shouted loudly.
"Quick, send the order, the whole army retreats, regroups into formation, uses square formation to stabilize the position, and uses circular formation to resist the enemy outside!" Ren Shifan also roared loudly.
At this critical moment, the three of them no longer had any desire to win. They worked together and gave orders one after another, allowing their troops to quickly distance themselves from the enemy, and quickly gathered into formation. This was also the case for this Song Dynasty. The regular army had its last bit of confidence when facing Wu Jun.
But obviously, it was impossible for Wu Jun to let them perform such battlefield killing moves. Seeing the movements of the Song army, Pang Wanchun ignored the emperor's presence and immediately shouted loudly: "Blow the trumpet and let everyone pursue them with all their strength. We must not let the enemy form a formation and disperse them!"
"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...", the loud horn sounded, and countless Wu troops came out like ferocious beasts and charged at them with all their strength.
At the same time, Pang Wanchun frowned again: "It's almost time, it's time to end this battle! Let's fire the Dysprosium Arrow!"
There was an archer waiting beside him for a long time. Hearing the order, he did not hesitate and immediately set several specially made sounding arrows on the string of the strong bow. As soon as he let go, the three sounding arrows went straight up into the air with a sharp whistling, and the sound was far away quickly. Spread far away...