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More than 600 people were killed or wounded in front of the first line of defense set up by Qin Mu. The ground was littered with corpses. Although this was only a one-tenth loss for the 5,000-strong army, these 5,000 troops were the elite selected from Zhang Xianzhong's army of more than 100,000. They lost hundreds of people in one encounter, but did not even touch a hair of the Qin army. This dealt an extremely heavy blow to the morale of the 5,000 troops.
But Zhang Dingguo had no way to retreat. There were hundreds of thousands of troops coming from behind, and each person only had enough food to last for a few days. They all relied on him to open up the road to the north in order to have a chance to escape.
It can be said that if they delay for a moment, the 130,000-strong army will be in greater danger of being wiped out. So even though the first battle was unfavorable and morale was low, they still had to go ahead and dared not rest for a moment.
After crossing the first line of defense and walking two miles forward and turning a small corner, we saw black flags fluttering again. This place was surrounded by mountains on both sides, with a gap of only more than a mile wide in the middle. A trench more than ten feet wide and deep was dug in the middle half a mile. The excavated soil was piled on the north side of the trench, forming a combination of a trench and an earth wall.
There were probably many stone slabs underground on both sides of the mountain, which made it difficult to dig, so they built a wall with wood and stones. In short, the entire gap was sealed. Three or four thousand Qin troops lined up on the north side of the trench, with black flags fluttering. The Qin troops under the flags were silent, quietly waiting for the rebels to launch an attack.
This time, Zhang Dingguo did not dare to launch an attack rashly. Instead, he sent people to check whether there were any secrets hidden on the south side of the trench, such as the inconspicuous horse-trapping holes on the first line of defense.
On a ridge more than a mile to the north, Qin Mu was stationed with fifty personal soldiers, observing Zhang Dingguo's every move with a monocular telescope. When he saw Zhang Dingguo carefully sending people to check the south side of the trench first, he couldn't help laughing.
Hongniang's cloak was blown by the mountain wind. Qin Mu's smug laughter made her very uncomfortable. She said with disdain: "What are you so proud of? It's just some trivial tricks. If Li Dingguo was not eager to open up the road to the north, your arrangements would be full of loopholes and would be broken with one attack."
"You're absolutely right, haha... For example, those horse traps are useless to infantry. The problem is, if you don't discover them in advance, will you let the cavalry abandon their horses and fight on foot? What's more, Zhang Dingguo is eager to open up a passage to the north, which is exactly why I have him in my sight. So, no matter how many flaws my plan has, as long as it can make Zhang Dingguo look miserable, it's a good strategy."
"If you walk too much at night, you will definitely encounter ghosts. You always try to win by plotting and scheming. Sooner or later, you will shoot yourself in the foot. Don't think that everyone in this world is a fool."
"Huh!" Qin Mu put down the telescope and looked at Hong Niangzi in surprise. It must be said that her words were like a blow to the head, which made Qin Mu startled.
As the saying goes, a good rider falls from his horse, a good swimmer drowns, a good drinker gets drunk, and a good fighter dies from being killed. These principles are very simple, but the people involved are often obsessed with them and cannot reflect on themselves.
Qin Mu thought back to the series of wars he had experienced in the past few months. Perhaps because the enemy was outnumbered or because he did not want to suffer too much loss, he often took risky moves and rarely won fair and square victories.
Fortunately, God has taken care of us, and nothing has gone wrong so far. But the sun won't always shine on your house. The opponents you will meet in the future will definitely become stronger and more cunning. If you continue to play with fire like this, you will get burned sooner or later.
"Miss, your advice is valuable and kind. I appreciate it." Qin Mu saluted Hongniang with a serious expression.
Hong Niangzi didn't expect him to be so serious, and was a little at a loss. Her face turned red, and she didn't even dare to look Qin Mu in the eye. Just at this moment, the rumbling sound of war drums sounded in front of them, and a new round of fierce fighting began in front of the second line of defense.
Qin Mu had not made any fancy arrangements for this line of defense. More than 3,000 Qin soldiers relied on trenches and stone walls to withstand the fierce attack of Zhang Dingguo's thousands of troops.
The Qin army hid behind the earth wall and used bows and arrows to shoot the rushing Dashi army. There were also many firearms such as three-barreled guns and bird guns, which kept banging. Above the dense smoke, there was a rain of arrows from the Dashi army rising into the sky, like dark clouds covering the sun. The shouts of killing from both sides resounded throughout the fields and echoed in the mountains and forests.
Because of the trenches and stone walls, the approaching Dashi troops could only dismount to fight. Li Dingguo led the charge and rushed to the stone wall. The black mass of Dashi troops followed him, braving the hail of arrows and bravely climbing up the stone wall. One was knocked down by a spear, and another climbed up again, and even more, like ants;
The Qin army was far inferior to Zhang Dingguo's elite troops. Although they had the advantage of terrain, they were all rookies. In this simple close combat, the Qin army suffered no less casualties than the Dashi army. Both sides of the stone wall were covered with corpses, and thick blood seeped through the stone wall and merged together, making it impossible to distinguish between friend and foe.
Seeing that the defense line was about to be breached, Liu Meng quickly ordered the ignition of the pre-buried explosives, and then the entire army rushed to evacuate to the mountains and forests on both sides. Violent explosions sounded near the stone wall, one after another. Although the Dashi Army had learned from the previous experience, some of them were slow to react and were still blown to pieces... ... ... ... ..
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"What's going on? How could this happen? Cheng Erhu, bring that son of a bitch Cheng Erhu up to me..." Zhang Kewang roared in the big tent. Zhang Wenxiu, who was standing next to him, felt like he was sitting on pins and needles. He stood up and rushed out of the tent, almost bumping into the personal soldiers who rushed in.
"General, General, Cheng Erhu is missing..." the personal soldier who rushed in said anxiously.
"Missing? Find him for me. I must catch this son of a bitch no matter what. I will tear him into pieces." Zhang Kewang was furious. The report from Wuchang said that Li Zicheng did not have a large army moving south, and Qin Mu's troops were just bluffing and did not move north. Instead, they took a day and a half to reach Liuyang and besieged Zhang Xianzhong, the King of the Great West, who was advancing northward with a light army.
At this point, it was already very clear that Li Zicheng's army's march south was just a trick of Qin Mu, whose purpose was just to delay his advance southward.
"It's all your fault. What else do you have to say?" Zhang Kewang stared at Zhang Wenxiu with fiery eyes.
Zhang Wenxiu sighed sadly, and really wanted to end his life, but he was unwilling to do so. He had followed Zhang Xianzhong for nearly ten years, and had experienced life and death, and had gone through countless battles. Although he was only in his twenties, he was definitely a veteran on the battlefield. He did not want to be passive everywhere and suffer losses after meeting Qin Mu.
Come to think of it, he was not really a bad person. It was just that ever since the fall of Changsha, he had been in extreme anxiety, and his mind was full of thoughts about how to recapture Changsha as soon as possible to make up for his mistake. Driven by this mentality, he became more and more impatient, and fell into Qin Mu's trap again and again.
After a long sigh, Zhang Wenxiu tried to calm himself down and said slowly: "Brother, I will apologize to father for the mistakes I made in the future. The most important thing now is to rescue father's hundreds of thousands of troops. Father is heading north with a small army, and the food and grass can only support him for a few days at most. If we can't break through Qin Mu's blockade within these few days, the hundreds of thousands of troops will be defeated."
"Come here, pass on my order. The whole army must break camp and leave immediately. There must be no delay."
Zhang Kewang knew that he did not have the power to deal with Zhang Wenxiu, and he could not really let Zhang Wenxiu commit suicide at this time, otherwise there would be no one to bear the responsibility for withdrawing the troops.
The 50,000-strong army quickly broke camp and continued to march south. However, based on the distance, it would take at least four days to reach Liuyang, and they were not sure how many days Zhang Xianzhong's food and grass could last.
Another point is that Ling Zhan, who is stationed in Xiangyin, will definitely do his best to stop them from going south. It is unknown whether they can quickly defeat Ling Zhan. Once they are delayed for a few days, I am afraid all will be over.
Zhang Kewang was extremely anxious and kept urging the army to speed up, racing against time. However, Zhang Wenxiu, who had calmed down, reminded him, "Brother, if you still trust me, pick out two to three thousand elite troops and I will take a shortcut through Pingjiang and Longfu to Liuyang first, and attack Qin Mu from behind. Qin Mu only has 20,000 troops. Once he is attacked from two sides, he will be defeated."
Zhang Kewang looked at him coldly, but still agreed to his suggestion and quickly selected 2,000 troops and handed them over to Zhang Wenxiu. Zhang Wenxiu immediately led the 2,000 troops and headed east, galloping away.
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.(To be continued..)
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