The army marched through the fog-filled wilderness.
At the forefront are the scouts.
The light cavalry team composed of twenty people was divided into several teams, with each team separated by several miles.
They are responsible for inquiring about the enemy situation and terrain ahead, as well as finding sites for the army to camp.
Not far behind the scouts were a corresponding number of vanguard soldiers.
They were organized into units of hundreds, led by centurions, and were lightly armed and simple in order to cope with the sudden battle situation of the scouts ahead.
The hundred-man squad led by Yang Sheng was just such a vanguard group.
"Brother Sheng, I feel a little panicked." Because it was foggy and the field of vision was not very wide, Yang Luhou was a little nervous, "Will enemies suddenly appear in this fog?"
"Why are you panicking? Only with enemies do we have a chance. Colonel Mo is taking care of us." Yang Sheng licked his lips. There was energy in his eyes, a desire to see blood, "I am afraid of enemies. Don’t dare to come.”
More than ten miles away from them, the large army was advancing slowly and orderly.
Mo Qiaosheng led five thousand troops in Bianzhou.
Before setting off, He Lanzhen allocated him an additional 1,000 well-trained cavalry and 1,000 archers.
There are also 3,000 laborers responsible for transporting grain and baggage, making the total team more than 10,000 people.
More than ten years ago, a campaign involving tens of thousands of people was already considered a large-scale battle.
But now, with the fall of the royal capital, aliens invaded. The feudal lords in the Central Plains region were divided and wars continued.
The scale of the war began to gradually expand.
A team of ten thousand people can only be regarded as a tentative dispatch of troops by the Lord.
At this moment, in the Jin army, the main force of the team and the rear baggage transport troops are moving forward in an orderly manner.
There are light cavalry running back and forth at the head and tail, conveying messages.
There were a thousand lightly armored soldiers on each side, thinking they were divided. It is used to protect the flanks of the army, prevent enemy surprise attacks, and disrupt one's own formation.
The hundred-man team that A Yuan belongs to belongs to the group of soldiers.
"Centurion Han," A Yuan and Centurion Han Shen walked side by side, "our army has more than 10,000 people. Qixian heard that the defenders only had a few thousand people. Could it be that the battle was finished by the vanguard before we arrived?" ?”
"Those slaves in the forward camp who have never seen the world, think they can take the lead this time?" Han Shen snorted softly, "The city of Qixian County is strong, with sufficient food, but the troops are not as strong as our army, so the defender will definitely not be able to defend it. Yang Sheng's forward battalion wants to touch the enemy's head in advance. I'm afraid it's not that easy. Who can do it will have to work hard on the city wall."
Under the commander's flag of the Chinese army is the command center and guard of the army.
Mo Qiaosheng was riding forward with Li Qianfu and Liang Qianfu.
"Although there are only three thousand garrison troops in Qixian County, the city is strong and well-supplied, and the garrison Gan Yanshou has been stationed for many years. He will definitely clear the fields and recruit young men in the city to hold on. The total army may not be much smaller than the main force of our army. The Art of War It is said that ten will be surrounded and five will be attacked. Now our main force is more than 7,000 people. I am afraid that Qixian is not as easy to defeat as imagined." Li Qianfu, an older and steady man, spoke.
"No, we won't attack Qi County directly." Mo Qiaosheng said.
"Not attacking Qixian County?" Liang Qianfu and Li Qianfu said in surprise.
"Everyone knows that our army wants to capture Qixian County. Although Han Quanlin is beyond his reach, he still sends a lot of food and military supplies to Qixian County. Not only Qixian County Guard Gan Yanshou is fully prepared, but the nearby Yanjin, Weihui, Hua The county guards will also be eyeing our army. Once our army cannot take Qixian for a while, or shows a slight decline, they may send troops to respond at any time, creating a flanking attack. "
"What does the general want?"
"We take Yanjin, cross the Yellow River, capture Weihui first, then go up the Weihe River and capture Huaxian County upstream of Qixian County." A sneer appeared at the corner of Mo Qiao's mouth.
Generals Liang and Li remembered that Hua County was located at the intersection of the Wei River and the Yellow River, and was only about thirty miles away from Qi County.
They suddenly understood what Mo Qiaosheng wanted to do, and couldn't help but take a breath.
This General Mo is a new official, young and energetic. They all thought that he was eager to achieve success and would attack the city at all costs. I didn't expect that he would have the patience to take such a safe approach.
When the Jin army arrived at Yanjin, the Yanjin garrison abandoned the city and fled.
The army then crossed the Yellow River and arrived at Weihui, where they began their first battle.
Yang Luhou, Dengzhu, and Cai Shi were carrying huge wooden piles and building a camp.
As a vanguard force, one of the major tasks is to hastily build barracks before the arrival of the army so that the soldiers who arrive later can settle down.
Yang Luhou inserted a huge wooden stake into the soil, climbed up on it, swung the big pestle and smashed it down.
They needed to build strong fences, dig trenches, set up defensive horses and antlers, and build tall watchtowers.
"It's such a pity that the Yanjin guard escaped without a fight. I really want to get another head quickly." Dengzhu said while turning the wooden pestle, "This way I can free my mother from slavery."
Yang Luhou didn't think so. When he went to the battlefield, he was a little excited and a little scared: "Anyway, those of us who are small soldiers can just obey the general's orders. I hope that the captain will lead us to a big victory." We have many brothers in the war, and everyone takes their heads, haha.”
The soldiers entered the camp, set up camp, buried pots and cooked rice, waiting for the generals to lead them to victory or death.
In the large tent of the Chinese army, Mo Qiaosheng was sitting in the middle. Under the tent were several thousand captains and dozens of centurions.
Mo Qiaosheng inspected everyone: "We will capture the city tomorrow. Who is willing to capture the city first for our army?"
As we all know, when taking out a city, the troops who attack first suffer the most casualties.
However, according to the Jin army's new policy, as long as the first troops to ascend the city wall and hold their position, the centurion leading the team can be directly promoted to the rank of nobility. There is no longer a need to meet the harsh conditions of a certain ratio between the number of deaths in the entire team and the acquisition of the enemy leader.
This is undoubtedly a great temptation for the centurions who find it harder to advance the further they go.
As long as the entire team obtains twenty enemy leaders in total, all combatants in the team can be promoted to one level of knighthood. Even if one dies in battle, the title and reward can be inherited by the family.
Yang Sheng and Han Shen stood up at the same time: "I am willing to do it."
Mo Qiaosheng looked at the two of them for a moment, then ordered the soldiers to bring three cups of hot wine with a high-five.
He raised his glass and made a toast: "Mo, I wish you both a successful start, and that our Jin army will win the first battle and take the lead."
In the early morning of the next day, as it was dawning, the defenders on Weihui City found uneasily that smoke was rising from all sides of the city wall. The smoke gradually filled the air, obscuring their vision.
They were shocked to know that the Jin army, which had just arrived yesterday, launched an attack.
Liu An, the general who defended the city, climbed up to the top of the city and watched the Jin army attacking from all sides, covering the sky and complaining secretly.
He really couldn't let go of the honor of running away without a fight like the Yanjin guard did.
But if he was asked to use the one or two thousand men in his hands to resist the aggressive Jin army, he felt that he could not do it.
Therefore, he originally planned to hold on for ten days and a half, unable to avoid the battle, waiting for the reinforcements from Qixian County and Huaxian County to arrive, and attack from both front and rear.
If the reinforcements are delayed and he abandons the city and leaves, he will have fulfilled his duty as a minister.
I soon learned that the enemy's commander, Mo Qiaosheng, was impatient. The army had only arrived yesterday, but today he raised his troops to attack the city.
Moreover, it is unclear where the main attack came from, surrounded by chaos.
He heard the roar of killing on the west side of the city, and hurriedly said: "Hurry, hurry, the enemy is attacking from the west, mobilize men and horses to guard the west of the city, prepare more rolling stones and wood, hurry!"
To the west of the city, the Jin army formed a formation, beat drums and shouted, and made several tentative charges, but they were all retreated by the rain of rolling stones and arrows from the top of the city.
Guard general Liu An personally supervised the battle and dispatched a large number of soldiers to guard the city wall.
At this moment, outside the south gate, Yang Sheng and Han Shen's team of 100 people, under the cover of the smoke, quietly approached the city gate with shields in hand.
In front of them, there was a team pushing ladders, trams, and crash cars.
The guards in the south of the city suddenly saw several square cowhide carts with strange shapes appearing in the thick smoke.
They fired arrows in a hurry, but the thick cowhide protected the soldiers inside, and they walked straight to the trench. A group of soldiers poured out of these carriages and quickly built a bridge across the ditch with wooden planks despite the rain of arrows.
The ladder, followed by the crash, crossed the ditch and approached the city wall.
The soldiers on the city wall threw down wood, rolled stones, poured kerosene, and lit the ladders on fire.
But in the end, two aerial ladders rose up long ladders and connected to the city wall with hooks like scimitars.
Two squads of a hundred men rushed up in the thick smoke with shields on their backs, and climbed up the stairs regardless of their own safety.
The stones and wood on the city wall fell like a heavy rain. Amidst the billowing black smoke, one side fought tooth and nail to prevent the enemy from getting on the wall, while the other side gritted its teeth and rushed up desperately. Both sides were furious.
Yang Sheng stood guard at the foot of the ladder, watching as each of his brothers failed to climb halfway, either being smashed open by falling rocks, or being riddled with holes by arrows and falling down the ladder.
With great difficulty, he climbed the pillar and avoided random arrows and falling rocks, rushed to the entrance of the city wall, and climbed onto the city wall.
He cut off an enemy's head with a knife and was about to call his brothers behind to follow him. An iron spear from the enemy penetrated his chest.
Dengzhu was stunned for a moment, grabbed the enemy's head that he had chopped off, shook his body, and fell from the city wall.
"Pillar!" Yang Sheng's eyes were cracked. He and Yang Luhou ran forward to help up their blood-covered brother, and took shelter behind the carriage.
"Brother Zhuzi, hold on, hold on." Yang Luhou cried in frustration. He already knew in his heart that this brother who would wait for him every day and help him back to the barracks would not make it.
"Sheng, Brother Sheng." Dengzhu tremblingly raised the head in his hand and put it on Yang Sheng's waist, "I, my mother..."
Yang Sheng closed his eyes and pinned the head's hair around his waist.
"Don't worry, I will have an extra mother in the future. As long as one of our brothers is alive, someone will take care of your mother until she is old."
He put down his brother who was still alive and looked up at the smoke-filled city wall. The evil aura in his eyes was as real as anything.
On the city wall, an archer had just shot an arrow and was about to pick up another.
An enemy's head suddenly appeared on the ladder. There was a hideous scar across half of the man's face, and even an ear was missing. The man's eyes were red, and he jumped onto the city wall like a ghost.
He held a knife in his mouth and a bloody human head on his waist. He supported the ground with one hand and a cold light flashed through the other hand.
The soldier holding the arrow felt a chill on his neck and suddenly lost consciousness.
Yang Luhou followed closely, holding up his shield to block the rain of arrows for Yang Sheng.
"Fuck them to death, Brother Sheng, fight them!" he shouted in a hissing voice while shaking.
As Yang Sheng gained a firm foothold, Jin soldiers rushed to the top of the city one after another. They pressed against each other with shields, blocking the enemy's attack in a short time and guarding the ladder.
There were more and more Jin soldiers on the city wall. The car drove to the city gate, and huge wooden rams began to hit the city gate.
The defenders in the distant city and the soldiers on the other three city walls finally realized that the southern city was the real place to attack, and they all rushed towards the south.
"You guys stand guard while I open the city gate." Yang Sheng confessed, hacked two enemy soldiers to death, and jumped down from the stairs of the inner city wall.
"Brother Sheng, Brother Sheng!" His brother couldn't help shouting, watching him single-handedly kill the city wall.
Yang Sheng chopped down several soldiers who were guarding the inside of the south city gate and were reinforcing the city gate.
However, the enemy troops were numerous and he soon fell into a tight siege.
The city gate became loose due to repeated impacts from the outside.
Finally, there was a clang, the city gate opened wide, and the Jin army rushed in and rushed into the city gate.
Yang Sheng was covered in blood and was hit by several arrows. When he was unable to continue, a silver spear drove away the enemy in front of him.
Mo Qiaosheng immediately stood in front of him with his spear drawn.
"Leave this to me, stay back."
The sound of fighting on the battlefield finally subsided, and lingering smoke drifted from the dilapidated city walls.
Above and below the city, the enemy's blood was mixed with the blood of his own comrades, and there were corpses everywhere.
In the open space in front of the city gate, there were neat piles of heads chopped off by each team. Blood flowed out from the hills-like heads, reflecting the merits of the soldiers.
A Yuan's teammates were still standing on the city wall. After the battle, there were less than thirty people left in their hundred-man team.
Centurion Han Shen was sitting against the city wall. Several sharp arrows were inserted into his chest, and he could not survive.
"No, don't look sad." Han Shen sighed and said to A Yuan, "Don't you... always want to be a civil servant? Earn... land and house for your wife and son. Now, you are "
"I should learn from you and pull a piece of flower cloth for my mother-in-law. I... I have only ever beaten her." He stopped talking.
A Yuan stretched out his hand, closed his eyes, untied his head from his waist, and without saying a word, led the rest of his companions down the city wall in the bloody setting sun.
The author has something to say: In this article, for siege equipment and ancient weapons, please refer to "Organization of Ancient Chinese Book Illustrations" published by Elephant Press and "History of Chinese Weapons" by Zhou Wei