sweeping the world

Chapter 438
The Yellow River is not called the Yellow River now. She has multiple names, such as Mother River or Dahe.

The current water of the Yellow River is not turbid. It should be said that her river water looks very clear, providing drinking and agricultural irrigation for people along the entire river.

There are a lot of records about the Yellow River, usually focusing on the record of changing lanes, the five years of Zhou Dingwang (602 BC), the third year of Yuanguang (132 BC) of Emperor Xiaowu of the Western Han Dynasty, and the three years of Wang Mang's founding of the country (AD 11), several diversions of the Yellow River were seriously recorded, and any diversion of the Yellow River would have caused the imperial court at that time to face a huge crisis.

Now in this clear river, with Jijin as the starting point, there are countless corpses floating on the downstream river surface, and some river sections even have river grass and some broken wood branches on the water surface. Too many corpses were hooked, resulting in too many corpses piled up in the river section. The exaggerated modification is that the floating corpses stopped the river.

Of course, the densely packed corpses floating on the river are just on the surface of the water. The water is still flowing in deeper places. To say that the floating corpses cut off the flow of the river is consistent with the statement that throwing a whip to cut off the flow is an exaggerated description.

The corpses floating downstream of Jijin extend very far. As time goes by, the floating corpses float farther. It is conceivable that if there are floating corpses that are not stopped by anything, or float on the river beach, or are caught by the current If it gets caught in the riverbed and gets trapped by the mud, it can definitely float into the Bohai Sea.

The Shijie Zhao army defending the south bank of Jijin collapsed. Ma Qiu couldn't handle it and chose to abandon everything and run away.The reason why he would do this is very simple, because he thinks that Shihu will never let him go this time, if he doesn't run, why should he wait to be skinned and cramped before being boiled and eaten?

Ma Qiu, who has completely lost his position, will not have any impact on the battle situation. It is a good thing for a completely useless general to run away and replace him with someone who can do something to take over the command.

The person who took over the command was Jia Jian in advance.In fact, he pretended not to notice so that Ma Qiu could escape. After Ma Qiu ran away, he urgently summoned the generals at all levels in the army and made it clear who the commander would be from now on.

A group of distraught generals immediately accepted when they saw someone coming out to take the blame. Anyway, they would do whatever Jia Jian asked them to do.

In this way, the chaotic Shijie Zhao army miraculously regained some organizational strength. They deliberately let go of the channels for the rout troops to flee, and organized troops to build a defense line and deploy defenses. , Facing the Han army trying to break through behind the rout, it actually blocked the Han army back.

The real situation is that the number of Han troops trying to break through was only a thousand. Under the leadership of a military marquis named Cheng Shuo, they specially changed their outfits and got on the bridge among the enemy's rout. A lot of people were squeezed into the water, and among the panic-stricken rout soldiers, their murderous disguised soldiers were too obvious. The Jie people's archers who were discovered in time covered the rout soldiers indiscriminately. After everyone on the bridge was in a mess, they were crowded and pushed, and they could only try their best to get out and retreat.

From the collapse of the Shijie Zhao army on the south bank of Jijin to the confrontation between the Han army and the Shijie Zhao army on the north bank again, the whole process lasted for two days.

There are too many things and some things are not easy to deal with immediately, so that Cheng Shuo is only kneeling in front of Ran Min now.

That time when a thousand Han troops tried to break through, it was not an order from the top. Cheng Shuo saw an opportunity and took his headquarters to execute it.The matter was not done, and 1000 people lost more than 400 people. Of course, he should be held accountable.

According to Ran Min's original intention, he really didn't think that Cheng Shuo had done anything wrong, and he wanted to praise Cheng Shuo if he could make the decision.The problem is that the Han army has its own discipline. If Cheng Shuo succeeded in doing it, he would be credited with it, but didn't he fail to do it?

"According to military regulations..." Ran Min took the document and read it, looked up at Cheng Shuo who was kneeling on the ground, smiled and said, "Do you know what kind of punishment you will face?"

Cheng Shuo knew what kind of punishment he was facing and responded "yes" very calmly, as if he would fully accept the punishment no matter what.The only thing he felt depressed about was that if they successfully broke through and established a foothold on the south bank, they would definitely obtain the title of knight, and their official position should be promoted to the level of captain.

Ran Min looked at Li Tan who was accompanying him, and seemed to be chatting, "It seems that something similar happened before, but it was successful?"

"There is such a thing." Li Tan knew what Ran Min meant. He actually knew who Cheng Shuo was. After looking at Cheng Shuo who was magnanimous and ready to accept punishment for a while, he said to Ran Min: "You are the commander-in-chief. You can The final judgment will be given according to the circumstances."

Ran Min was waiting for this sentence. With the support of the deputy general, Chang Shi also said that he could deal with it lightly, so he could make up his mind.The battle progressed much faster than expected, and he was still in a happy mood. He deliberately teased Cheng Shuo, and asked, "The heaviest punishment is execution. Do you think you should be executed?"

Cheng Shuo swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and chose to smile awkwardly and remain silent.

"Demoted to the position of village chief." Ran Min waved his hand, indicating that Cheng Shuo could get out.He looked at Li Tan, and then at Chang Shi Zhang Shi, who seemed to regard him as a decoration, deliberately made a distressed expression, and said: "Now that the south bank of Jijin has been taken, the king specially came with an order. Let us rest. What exactly is going on?"

Zhang Shi was the man who had stayed in the Xiang Kingdom for a long time as the spy leader. Before that, he was a lieutenant as one of the Nine Qings. After Liu Yan's personal expedition, the lieutenant had nothing to do, so he was sent to Ran Min as the marching commander. Maybe It is to gain experience, or it may be to gild.

In fact, to be clear, no matter Liu Yan or everyone knows who Ran Min is. In the military, Ran Min, as the chief general, doesn't like to have subordinates pointing fingers, and Ran Min's military ability is more trustworthy. Zhang Shi came over to be the long history monitor. Responsibilities are far more than planning.

Now it was time for Zhang Shi to speak. He said: "The scale of the war with Shi Jie is huge. There is a delay in the mobilization of our army. We have to wait for the troops and horses from other groups to be in place."

This is the interaction between global and local.To put it bluntly, when the war develops to a certain scale, some parts can be given up, but some important points should be persisted until one person fights. No matter what kind of actions are taken, they are all controlled to achieve comprehensive victory.

Ran Min guessed that this was the case. They had become pawns to attract Shi Hu's attention along the way. What the center wanted was to make breakthroughs from other positions. In order to achieve the goal, not only did they have to rest along the way, Huan Wen also had to continue to be in trouble along the way. He insisted that maybe Li Kuang knew that he would be trapped or surrounded all the way.

"The Han has expanded a lot of territory recently and has wiped out a lot of Zhao troops. The situation seems to be favorable, but..." Li Tan glanced at Zhang Shi specifically and saw that Zhang Shi continued to show off his non-existent He seemed to ponder for a moment before continuing: "Generally speaking, the war against Shi Jie is still not making much progress, and there is even a tendency to fall into a quagmire?"

"Well." Ran Min really regarded Zhang Shi as non-existent, and said without any scruples, "I shouldn't have listened to those civil servants. If I launched a long-distance attack on Yecheng or Xiangguo that time, it would have been a long time ago." A big breakthrough has been made.”

Li Tan absolutely did not dare to take that issue, so he changed the subject and said: "Now General Xie Lang will lead an army of [-] to march to Jijun, General Xu Zhonglang will lead an army of [-] to Zhu'a County, and the king himself will lead an army to Qinting." (Dongping County). It seems that if you don't move, it will be an all-out attack on Shijie?"

There are more and more Han troops along the Yellow River. Ran Min alone has 17 troops, and the rest of the troops will definitely exceed 30 with the arrival of new troops from the rear. Roll out.

A map covering the Yellow River was quickly spread on the ground of the big tent. Ran Min took off his boots and stepped on it, walked to the location of Puyang County, and pointed out while saying: "Shihu's strength is only larger than our army's." There will be no less, there are more than [-] people on the north bank of Jijin alone, and there are troops from other places constantly approaching this side."

It’s an obvious thing!Ran Min defeated the Shijie Zhao army on the south bank of Jijin, forcing the Shijie Zhao army to retreat to the north bank. Jijin was only forty miles away from Chaoge. The Shijie Zhao army that retreated to the north bank of the Yellow River had no choice but to stick to the coast of Jijin. Besides, didn't it fall on the head of Huan Wen's troops?
Therefore, Li Tan was both envious and worried about Huan Wen. Huan Wen's subordinates were surrounded by many people. They could either become a nail and stay firmly in place, or they were a lonely boat on the sea that could be overturned by huge waves at any time. It is a great power to shake the sky, but if it is lost, people will die.

The importance of Huan Wen's troops has increased again and again because the encirclement plan for Shihu's main force went bankrupt, and the army located in Chaoge attracted too many enemy troops, and it was Shihu who wanted to retreat to Yecheng or Xiangyang. The nail that had to be pulled out before the country.

The center of the Han Dynasty is currently deploying around Huan Wen's main force, which can firmly attract Shi Jie and Zhao's army. Ran Min's original leading position of the Han army can be said to have been robbed.

In the next three days, Ran Min and others only pretended to attack and seize the bridge at any time without launching an actual offensive. In contrast, the Shijie Zhao army desperately built fortifications on the other side of the river. Ran Min was anxious to see that He was also extremely annoyed, until the news that Xu Zheng led his army to cross the river and go north came, which made Ran Min curse directly.

"After all this, our nearly 20-strong army has just become a decoration here?" Ran Min's good mood went away with the wind. He was almost livid: "We created the situation, but others easily came out. Peach picking!"

Li Tan felt deeply, and he was also upset that his great achievements would be taken away from him, but at least he was still rational and advised: "We must take the credit. Since the king has given permission to launch an attack, we should first discuss how to launch an attack." Law?"

"There's nothing to discuss." When Ran Min was furious, he didn't want to talk at all, and said directly: "The armed infantry will advance first, and the bow and crossbow troops will go up later, shooting out a river bank where they can stand, and the cavalry should be behind. thing."

Li Tan was speechless. The rest of the pontoon bridges had been destroyed. In recent days, they had only ensured that three bridges would not be destroyed or blocked. However, the fleet failed to reach many places where they could cross the river. It was really They can only rely on thicker-skinned troops to forcibly make a passage.

The order was given, and the drums of war were sounded.

Amidst the sound of "Boom—boom—" drums, the Han Army camp lined up and walked out of the infantry, led by the armored heavy infantry, including tower shield soldiers, followed by archers and crossbowmen.

Li Tuo, who replaced Jia Jian, heard the war drums played by the Han army and began to take action.

The Zhao army in Shijie, located on the north bank of Jijin, has increased to 20. The Jie people have [-] soldiers, and the rest are still all kinds of miscellaneous brands. It is worth mentioning that Shihu asked Li Tu to bring three soldiers. The Qianlongteng guards came over, one thousand heavy cavalry and two thousand heavy infantry.

The last time Ma Qiu commanded the battle, the morale of the Shijie Zhao army collapsed to the bottom. Li Tu did not choose to let those miscellaneous troops go first. In order to boost morale, he directly sent the two thousand heavy infantry of Longteng Guards to the field from the beginning. Five thousand archers were also assigned.

There are still traces of the big collapse on the three stone bridges, which are blood stains that have been exposed to the sun and turned dark black. Even around the bridge piers, there are some swelled floating corpses, and the air is full of the stench of corpses. .

The heavy infantry moved with great noise, causing heavy footsteps on both sides of the Yellow River bounded by the bridge to echo amidst the sounds of war drums and horns.

There are 1 armored heavy infantry soldiers led by Ran Min, of which only [-] are heavy swordsmen, and the rest are selected and trained from tall and strong soldiers.

The armed heavy infantry of the two armies soon appeared within visual distance of each other.

The armored heavy infantry at the front of the Han army were covered with scale armor on the outside, chain mail and leather armor on the inside, and two layers of silk underwear under the battle robes.Their helmets and visors were put down, only revealing a pair of eyes, holding a tower shield in their left hand, and a long-handled sword in their right hand.In addition, there were no heavy infantrymen holding shields. Instead, they carried a very thick-looking three-pointed two-edged sword. This weapon was called the Mo Dao during the Sui and Tang Dynasties.There must be a heavy swordsman who simply carries a thick and broad sword, but they are arranged on the two wings.

The armored heavy infantrymen of Zhao Jun in Shijie appear to be very traditional armors on the outside, that is, armor made of leather or cloth inlaid with iron plates. A layer of iron rings can be seen at the collar. It can be guessed that there is also a layer of chain mail inside the armor, and what else is left can only be guessed.The weapons all looked like heavy weapons, mostly maces or flails... that is, a wooden handle connected to a spiked sphere with an iron chain.

Ran Min saw from behind Shijie that Zhao Jun had sent Longteng Guards' armored heavy infantry on the field from the very beginning, but after a moment of stupefaction, he was amused: "There are such elites as Longteng Guards present? Killing them is better than killing miscellaneous soldiers." It's much bigger!"

(End of this chapter)