Chapter 1005 Crossing the River (2)

   Logically speaking, in Longmendu, Pubanjin, and Fenglingdu, the best solution for crossing the river is of course Pubanjin, because the water flow there is gentle.

   Unlike Fenglingdu, you still need to face the natural danger Tongguan after passing.

  As for Longmendu, there is the Yellow River Canyon surrounded by mountains in the north, and open and open plains in the south.

  According to the locals, there are three-foot waves even when there is no wind, and the water flow is much faster than Pubanjin.

  Therefore, it was not unreasonable for Xian Yufu to personally lead the main force to defend Pubanjin after seeing through Feng Thief's tricks.

  Especially after this autumn rain, even Pubanjin has risen a lot, let alone Longmendu?

   More importantly, because of the constraints of the times, the generals of both sides who have more information will be able to gain greater initiative.

  General Guan started from Yanmen County and swept all the way south, causing great chaos in the entire Bingzhou and Sizhou related areas.

   Not to mention the military situation in various places, even Luoyang is at a loss as to what the current situation in the Hedong area is.

  Jiang Ji had a keen sense of smell, and retreated to Zhiguan, avoiding the fate of being hit head-on by Governor Feng.

   But at the same time, he also lost the opportunity to find out news about Hedong.

  Jiang Ji knew that Governor Feng or General Guan would most likely be somewhere, waiting for him.

   But where and how many people there are, he has no idea.

  As for Xian Yufu, who was guarding across the river, it was even more impossible to know how many people were brought by Bandit Feng from the other side.

   So what if you successfully send the spy to Hedong?

  Hedong, as one of the largest garrison counties, is now full of soldiers and horses, and there are tens of thousands of garrisoners who have risen everywhere.

   (Shi Bao: A big dog in Hedong, I, Shi Zhongrong, are back again!)

   Those so-called volunteers may not have the guts to go into battle to face the army of Wei.

  But there are still some courage to borrow money and food from various Wuzhais in the name of the Han army, not only there are, but also very large.

   Xian Yufu wasn't even sure whether Guan Bandit and Feng Bandit led the troops southward one after the other, or whether they both led the troops southward together.

  In such a chaotic situation, do you still want to find out how many available soldiers Feng Zei has on hand?

  Luoyang could not transmit useful information, and careful investigation could not detect reliable information, and the troops on hand were not enough to prevent the entire river from being airtight.

  Xian Yufu faced the famous and vicious Feng thief, what could he do?

   Naturally, the priority is to defend Pu Banjin, who is the easiest to break through.

  The pre-judgment of the three-layer cake by Feng Shishi, coupled with the Yi Congjun led by Liu Hun, and the Hu people gathered along the way, made a grand appearance on the east bank.

   It made Xian Yufu believe in his own judgment: Feng Zei's original intention was most likely Pu Banjin.

  Based on this judgment, General Guan once again used the "surprise" feature, and picked a time when it was most unlikely to be forced to cross.

  The river rushing down from the mountains and valleys stirred up quite a few waves, making the raft sway.

  The soldiers on the raft had to lower their center of gravity as much as possible to prevent their feet from being unstable and falling into the river.

  After passing the center of the river, the Wei army on the other side started to shoot arrows at the river after a panic.

   Some turbulent waves caused great difficulties for the Han army to cross the river, but at the same time it also caused obstacles for the Wei army.

  Using the cover of the waves, the people and horses swimming in the river were rarely injured by Wei Jun's arrow feathers.

   Instead, it was the soldiers on the raft who were targeted by the Wei army's bow and crossbow.

  Although a huge wooden pole had been erected at the front of the raft, soldiers were still being shot by the arrow feathers thrown from the sky under the throwing of the opponent's archers.

  A village chief stood up from behind Dalu, braved the arrow rain of Wei Jun, and wanted to see how far he was to reach the other side.

  Unexpectedly, an arrow feather just shot towards him like lightning, and the commander couldn't dodge in time, and was shot in the shoulder immediately.

  I only heard him scream, and just now subconsciously wanted to avoid the arrow feathers, his body shook too much, and he couldn't stand firmly, so he fell into the river.

  The water waves in the river were already bigger than usual, and the paddling of more than a dozen rafts stirred up waves of all sizes.

  The head of the village fell into the river, and a wave came over and immediately swallowed him up.

  According to common sense, the head of the village is basically going to sink to the bottom of the water to feed the fish.

   It's just unexpected that after the wave, a head came out of the water again, who is it not the head of the village?

  The raft following behind tentatively stretched out a bamboo pole, and the head of the village clung to the bamboo pole with the last bit of strength.

   "Alive!"

   Someone on the raft was shouting.

   "Pull up!"

  The raft kept rowing towards the opposite bank, without any intention of stopping at all—saving people was just passing by, and rushing to the opposite bank as soon as possible was the real business.

  The head of the village subconsciously grasped the bamboo pole tightly and let the people on the raft continue to recycle the bamboo pole.

  He knew that once he let go of his hand, his fate would not be so good next time.

   "Arrow hit!"

  The people on the raft finally pulled the village head back, and when they saw the half-folded arrow feathers on their shoulders, they exclaimed again.

   "Wow!"

  The head of the village spit out a big mouthful of yellow soup, and said intermittently:

   "No muscle injury..."

  Before he finished speaking, he passed out.

   Someone picked up the clothes around the chief’s wound with a dagger, and saw that the silk lining was brought into the flesh by the arrow, he couldn’t help grinning:

   "What a fate!"

  Life is indeed great.

  It was someone else, and the arrow fell into the river, and he died long ago.

  Who knew this guy was only slightly injured?

   There are two things that saved his life.

  One is the special silk lining in the army-this is the treatment only for the elite in the army who have made contributions.

  The second is the rattan armor on his body.

  The rattan armor on the head of the village is a specialty of Nanzhong.

  Take the old vines on the mountain, soak them in water for half a month to a month, then take them out to expose to the sun, and then soak them in tung oil for a year.

  After weaving into a garment, it should be maintained with tung oil daily to avoid losing its oiliness.

  This kind of rattan armor, although its protective ability is not as good as iron armor, is extremely tough, and it is already considered a rare armor.

  More importantly, it is very light and not afraid of water. Wearing this kind of rattan armor crosses the river, even if it falls into the water, it can also help soldiers float on the water.

   It can be called a water battlefield armor with the function of a life jacket.

   But it also has disadvantages.

  First, the production is extremely time-consuming, and it also consumes manpower and material resources.

  The second is fear of fire.

   It goes without saying that I am afraid of fire, but this thing has never appeared on a large scale on the battlefields of the Han and Wei dynasties.

   Wei Guo has never even seen this kind of rattan armor, so how could he know what its weakness is?

  And now Wei Guo’s impression of Han Guo is: local tyrants are rich! Refined iron, refined iron, all refined iron!

  Not to mention the iron-clad ghost rider who seemed to be summoned from the underworld by the ghost king.

   are the armored elite soldiers of the Han army, not only approaching the Wei army in quantity, but even surpassing the Wei army in quality, with extremely thick armor and well-trained.

  So Wei Guo never thought that the Han army would be equipped with this kind of slag, which looks like rattan armor that only the poor can wear?

  This kind of rattan armor takes a long time to make, and most of the materials are produced in Nanzhong.

   That is to say, the Xinghan Society is rich and powerful, which makes the production of rattan armor form an industrial chain.

  Yes, it is the industrial chain.

  Nanzhong has three pillar industries: sugar cane, tung oil and tea.

  Grow grain where there is flat land, sugarcane where there is roughness, and tea or tung tree where there are mountains.

  There are some villages that specialize in weaving this kind of rattan armor, and use it to offset taxes with the government, or exchange grain with Xinghanhui.

  The production of rattan armor is a subdivided industrial chain in the tung oil industry.

  The oil-soaked rattan armor in Nanzhong and the sheepskin airbag in Liangzhou played an extremely important role at this critical moment.

  Because they let the soldiers who crossed the river greatly reduce the fear of falling into the water, and even increased a lot of courage.

   "Wow!"

  The first raft finally hits the west bank.

"kill!"

  A Han army who couldn't wait jumped directly from the raft into the waist-high water, just shouted the word "kill", and was shot into a hedgehog by the rain of arrows on the spot.

  Looking at the ferry surrounded by obstacles such as antler fences, the leading Han army officer shouted loudly:

   "Don't rush!"

   "Raise the pole! Array!"

  …

   "Boom boom boom!"

  The tall soldiers tried their best to lift the big pole, which was only one head shorter than an adult, and jumped from the raft into the water.

  The soldiers on the raft also jumped off the raft one after another, followed closely behind Damao, lowered their heads, and tried their best to keep themselves under the protection of Damao.

   It's just that no matter how big the raft is, it's impossible to cover all the soldiers on the raft.

   Coupled with the fact that the Wei army occupies a favorable location, arrows are flying like locusts at this moment.

   Compared with when they were in the river just now, the arrow feathers faced by the soldiers of the Han army were several times more.

  Just a dozen breaths after jumping off the raft, there were continuous screams, and many Han soldiers were shot by arrows and fell into the water.

  Traces of blood red began to mix with the turbid yellow water, forming some kind of bewitching water patterns.

  The leading officer leaned halfway, leaning tightly behind the big pole, watching his comrades on the raft helplessly exposed to the bow and crossbow of the Wei army.

  His teeth were clenched tightly, panting heavily, forcibly suppressing his urge.

  The second raft soon followed.

  Having learned the lesson of the first raft, the second raft obviously did not jump out ahead of the impatient soldiers.

   But even so, the same casualties are inevitable.

   No need to greet, no communication, the commander on the second raft took the initiative to join forces.

  The wooden rafts of the two rafts joined together, and finally barely formed a small raft formation.

  The rafts behind followed up one after another, and when the number of Han troops docked reached a sufficient number.

  A school lieutenant who took the initiative to lead the army finally stood up, raised his spear, and shouted loudly:

   "Come on! Come with me and knock the antlers away!"

   As he spoke, he kicked away the horns supporting the big pole, held the big pole together with the soldiers and began to push forward.

  Under the leadership of their respective team leaders, the soldiers began to form small groups and rushed forward with the captain.

   Guan Ji, who was standing on the east bank, held up her binoculars and saw the soldiers rushing towards the fence of the Wei army, and fell to the ground one after another.

  Her face became extremely stern, and her eyes hidden behind the telescope were extremely deep.

  Whether it was the soldiers who fell into the water halfway across the river, or the soldiers who were shot to the ground by the Wei thief on the other side, they were all trained by her over the years.

  Watching them lose their lives under his nose, it is impossible to say that there is no fluctuation in his heart.

   But no matter how heavy the casualties are, she will take advantage of the time when Wei Jun is most likely to be paralyzed and careless, and take the ferry.

  She is very clear that this battle of forced crossing is likely to be the most costly battle since the Battle of Guanzhong, and even since the formation of the Liangzhou Army.

  If it is said that the Liangzhou Army has not encountered a tough battle from Yanmen County to the south.

   Then this time, it's time for the real test.

   But no matter how heavy the losses are, the Liangzhou army cannot back down.

  Because of the current conditions, you can't count on volunteers from the army, let alone the barbarians who came under coercion.

  The only thing she can trust is the Liangzhou Army.

   "Fourth batch, follow up!"

  She held up the binoculars to look at the river again, and gave orders in a calm tone.

  The 500 soldiers who had been waiting all this time immediately pushed the raft into the river together after receiving the military order...

  Each raft, depending on the size, has fifty to more than a hundred soldiers.

  Crossing the river is not rushing into the river in a swarm, it is an organized and batched attack.

   It is necessary to avoid overcrowding and set a living target for the opponent, but also to be able to connect troops in time, so that the front army does not rush up, but the rear army does not respond in time.

  The binoculars in Guan Ji's hands, and the strong organizational capabilities of the Liangzhou Army, can prevent this from happening to the greatest extent.

   But even so, the Han army's attempt to seize the ferry was still severely attacked by the Wei army.

   After four or five batches in a row, about 2,000 elite Liangzhou troops crossed the Yellow River.

   Except at the very beginning, taking advantage of Wei Jun's unpreparedness, he destroyed part of the antlers and fences on the periphery.

   For the rest, there is no further progress.

  The Han army, which suffered heavy casualties, had to form a circle under the leadership of Yang Wanwan after seizing a small beach and stand by for help.

   Not long ago, Wei Jun rushed out twice, trying to drive them into the river.

  The 300 or so cavalry who swam over played a big role.

  Yang Wanwan's war horse was shot to death in the last countercharge.

  When the sun turned to the top of the mountain, the two armies stopped their actions by coincidence.

  After the truce, the Han army still had no time to rest, because they did not have the geographical advantage of the Wei army.

  They must take advantage of this time to build a camp as quickly as possible.

  Even the simplest camp is better than staying on the shore without any cover.

  In addition to erecting the large rafts that can be collected as a temporary wall on the outside, most of the rafts must be dismantled to form a fence.

  This means that these Han troops guarding the west bank did not think about retreating.

   "Boom, boom, boom..."

  There are strong soldiers who are trying to smash thick wooden piles into the ground, so that the wooden piles can be wedged into the soil as deeply as possible.

  A hemp rope as thick as a baby's arm was tied to an old tree by the river, and a raft with the other end of the hemp rope began to row back.

   General Guan, who had been guarding the shore all this time, breathed a sigh of relief after receiving the reward from the West Bank.

   There was even a smile on his face:

   "Enough, just one night is enough! Tomorrow, the thief will understand what a real master of tigers and wolves is..."

  It is impossible for the Wei army to underestimate the Liangzhou army, but they simply do not understand that what is truly terrifying about the Liangzhou army is not its incomparably sophisticated armor and weapons, but its incomparably powerful organizational capabilities.

  (end of this chapter)