Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

For a while, chaos first began to appear in the east.

But this was just the beginning. As the ships of the two armies approached within two hundred steps of the river, the trebuchets and bed crossbows placed on several decks of the Zhou army's large ship began to shoot one after another.

All of a sudden, stones and arrows flew across the river, and the whistling sound was continuous, like a black rain, splashing water everywhere in the river, and the surface of the river turned into an exploding frying pan, with raindrops of arrows and stones crackling down Smashing, the water splashed continuously and covered the river surface.

At this time, the advantage of the big ship is reflected. The deck several stories high allows Zhou Jun to be condescending when facing Wuping Army, with a high hit rate, and it is difficult for the opponent to block.

It was difficult for Wuping's crossbow to hit the Zhou army on the big ship.

The small boats in the middle of the river were driven by the Zhou army to flee westward, and the Zhou army ships behind took the opportunity to outflank them from the north bank, like a big mouth that opened, as if to swallow all the Wuping ships.

The Wuping small boats in the east had no time to escape, and they were overtaken by the Zhou army's big boats in the front and slammed into each other fiercely.

In an instant, accompanied by the creaking and piercing noise resounding on both sides of the river, the hull of the ship was cracked and shattered, and the wooden hull was shattered. middle.

Some soldiers on board jumped into the river just in time, but when they didn't have time to jump into the river, they were crushed into meat paste by hundreds of tons of force, or squeezed like rotten persimmons, and the blood stained the river red.

Several small boats were hit and sunk by the huge rushing boat in front of the Zhou army, or were severely leaked and tilted, drifting in the river, and the soldiers on it cried for help but no one paid attention.

As soon as the water battle started, about half an hour into the battle, the situation began to fully favor the Zhou army. The Wuping navy was chased by the Zhou army's navy who suddenly broke out and fled westward.

But soon, the advantages of the small boats were also reflected. The big boats of the Zhou army formed an advantage over the small boats of the Wuping navy, preventing them from confronting each other head-on.

It formed a situation where the Wuping navy fled in an all-round way, but the Zhou army's navy was unable to annihilate them.

Shi Congyun looked at the river to the west from a distance, and saw the mixed boats of all sizes covering the sky and covering the sky, which was very spectacular, densely entangled and chased on the river, heading all the way to the waters of Dongting Lake.

There are boat wrecks everywhere in the rear, corpses, flags, etc. floating in the river, stretching for several miles everywhere, and the mottled river is stained blood red from time to time.

An hour later, the fighting on the water gradually faded away, and the Zhou army left behind more than 50 large ships to completely block and control the waters near Sanjiangkou.

The soldiers of the Zhou army on the bank shouted to their colleagues in the river, and the other side also responded. For a while, the entire general on both sides was filled with cheers from the Zhou army, and many people were already ready to move.

On the other side, Shi Congyun couldn't see their actions, but the failure of the water battle was sure to hit morale.

Shi Congyun looked across the river from a distance. In any case, his goal in the first stage had been achieved. Although it was not the best, it was acceptable.

He looked up at the position of the sun again, took a deep breath and said to the messenger beside him, "Order to attack."

The messenger behind him nodded, and solemnly raised three red flags with the other two messengers on the highest point of the hillside not far away.

As soon as the red flag was raised, the soldiers who had been quietly waiting on the banks of the Changjiang River several miles below started to act as if they had exploded.

The people pushed the small boat prepared by the river into the water, boarded the boat one after another, and rowed to the opposite bank.

The navy has already controlled the waters near Sanjiangkou, and the Wuping navy is fleeing towards the waters of Dongting Lake to the west, and no one can stop them.

Many densely packed small boats look like fallen leaves sprinkled in the river from a distance, and they gather densely towards the beach head about two miles away.

There are no firearms in this era, and the best way to deal with the target on the river is to use ships to deal with ships.

But at this time, there were no Wuping ships on the entire river, so the beachhead soldiers on the other side had to use crossbows, bed crossbows and trebuchets to attack the soldiers crossing the river.

But these weapons are not powerful enough, and they are accurate. Most of them fall into the river, and a few unlucky ones fall into the middle of the river. If they accidentally fall into the water, they are wearing armor and most of the northerners are not familiar with water, and they will die in all likelihood.

Shi Congyun stared nervously at the battle ahead, and the beach troops were divided into two groups, commanded and led by Wang Quanbin and Li Chuyun respectively, responsible for the east and west sections of the beach.

The troops in the east saw that they were only fifty steps away from the beach. Unfortunately, the boat in the front was hit by dozens of catties of stones thrown by the trebuchet, shaking violently, and someone at the stern was thrown off.

The ships behind passed it one after another, approached the beachhead, and rushed directly into the shallows without slowing down at all.

A few men in several layers of armor at the bow had been shot into hedgehogs, but their lives were still not in danger, and they jumped off the bow with a huge ax in hand.

However, because of the heavy armor on their bodies, two people fell directly in the beachhead diving, which made Shi Congyun anxious.

The soldiers rushed forward, and the boatmen who were still alive in the rear were responsible for moving the small boats on the beach to ensure that the boats behind them went ashore smoothly. The situation on the whole beach was complicated and people were chaotic.

Fortunately, more and more ships were docking. After seven or eight ships docked, the Wuping Army knew that it was impossible to stop them with bows and crossbows. They rushed into the water.

Dozens of pioneer warriors in heavy armor wielded big axes and chopped down several people one after another.

But soon, the Wuping army on the opposite side also changed their tactics.

They held their ground from the initial chaos.

Especially in the section to the east, the scattered Wuping army who rushed to the beach at the beginning also found that they could not deal with the Zhou army in this way, so they retreated and began to form an formation behind the beach, and it was the most deadly formation, using high shield piles Into a shield wall!

When they form an formation and push forward with spears, it will be useless for the Zhou army's forwards to be powerful and brave. They will definitely be slowly pushed into the water because they are so many!

On the western front, although most of the landing troops led by Li Chuyun landed on the beach, they also encountered trouble. On the opposite side, a large number of trenches were dug on the beach, guard towers were built, and a slope more than ten feet high was piled up with sand and gravel, standing on the high ground. defense.

Standing on the top and poking down with a spear, shooting down with a bow and crossbow, hundreds of people had already climbed up the west beach, and the team was still expanding and formed a complete formation, but they couldn't advance at all.

Seeing such a situation, Shi Congyun immediately said: "Let the firearm battalion go up!"

The orderly took the lead and hoisted a blue flag.

Immediately, a hundred elite soldiers from the Firearms Battalion, who were cruising in the river early in the morning, began to rush towards the river where the fighting was in full swing.

They were different from other soldiers, in addition to being equipped with light armor, each of them only carried a self-defense dagger, each of them carried five fire mines, and they carried a fire bag.

The scorching sun was in the sky, and the fighting by the river became more intense...

Chapter 203, Deadly Fire Thunder

Zhou Xingfeng stood on the top of the sentry tower several feet high, from which he could overlook the battle on the beach in the distance.

His heart became more and more stable. At the beginning, when his navy was chased and beaten by Zhou Jun, he was still sweating, and the morale of the army was indeed hit.

Zhou Jun's hundreds of small boats began to cross the river, and he knew that Zhou Jun was going to launch a general offensive.

Afterwards, he became ruthless and sent general Yang Shifan to the east to preside over the army, and he himself presided over the defense of the western section.

Soon, the Western Front stabilized its position after a fierce battle.

In the east, Yang Shifan lived up to his high hopes, and quickly reorganized his manpower array to resist the Zhou army's fierce attack.

On his side, relying on the trenches that had been repaired in advance, the horses and sentry towers also resisted the offensive of the Zhou army, completely resisting the Zhou army in the area of ​​​​the shoal, and could not get over it anyway.

At this point in the battle, Zhou Xingfeng himself broke out in a cold sweat.

He had seen the bravery of the Zhou army, and it was true that the Northern army was good at fighting. The successive defeats of the Northern Han, Shu, and Tang countries in the past few years were not just bragging.

Not to mention the reckless dismissal of the navy, the dozens of elites rushing up from the east alone caused more than a hundred of his men to return home without a feather, and had to reorganize their formation.

At the beginning, the people on the east beach wanted to take advantage of the fact that Zhou's army had few people ashore and didn't care about the formation, so they rushed up and drove them into the water. Unexpectedly, those dozens of armored elites killed them to death.

And until now Zhou Xingfeng knew in his heart that there was no hope of winning, at most it would be a tie.

Because Zhou Jun has completely controlled the river, they can withdraw if they cannot be defeated.

And I must stick to my side and not let them break through the defense line by the river, otherwise Fang Yuezhou will have no danger to defend, and Zhou Jun will be able to reach Wuling directly when he enters the waters of Dongting Lake, and he will retreat further south as soon as he retreats!

At this time, Zhou Xingfeng couldn't care less, and said to the messengers beside him, "Allow the reserve team to Lao Tzu, hold on, don't let Zhou's army go on the road!"

The messengers got the order and began to deploy troops to the rear, while the Zhou army in the distance was also continuously sending more troops to the shore.

The battle ahead became more and more fierce. Zhou Jun once rushed up the slope, but fortunately they were all killed. He saw with his own eyes a Zhou Jun man in heavy armor with three spears stuck in his body and killed them in the sand. Only one crossbowman fell down.

To the east, Yang Shifan organized his men to re-arrange. The previous dense array of six rows, with large shields and spears, and crossbowmen on the sentry towers, forced the Zhou army to retreat to the beachhead for a stalemate.

At this time, half an hour had passed since Zhou's army landed, and the battle sounded one after another on the long front of about two miles.

At this most tense moment, the Zhou army on the western front suddenly stopped attacking the slope, but slowly retreated ten steps to form an array.

There was a moment of silence on the battlefield on the western front. Many Wuping soldiers were puzzled. Someone accidentally rushed too far and slid down the slope.

Zhou Xingfeng stood on the sentry tower, looked at the situation ahead, and wondered for a moment, what is this for?

Then I thought, is Zhou Jun going to withdraw?

His sentry tower is only a few dozen steps away from the front position, and the situation there can be seen clearly.

It is a wise choice to withdraw the troops if they cannot attack for a long time. If the soldiers are exhausted and powerless, then retreating is courting death.

Zhou Xingfeng glanced at the east, the situation in the east is still in a state of confrontation, Zhou Jun seems to have plans to retreat...

The reserve team in the rear is coming up to support the long riverside defense line, and the densely packed Wuping soldiers have an increasing advantage.

Zhou Xingfeng was even more sure of this idea, and then he was excited in his heart, and said: "Go down and tell the commanders, show me that the Zhou army will withdraw its troops, and when they are halfway aboard, start attacking immediately!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a loud noise suddenly came from the distant river, like thunder on a sunny day, which startled him!

Zhou Xingfeng was taken aback for a moment, before he could react, he turned around and saw fires flickering one after another in the distance, blue smoke rising into the sky, sand and gravel on the beach splashed everywhere, and a large number of soldiers fell to the ground one after another...

He saw someone's feet flying in the sky, someone covered his face and wailed, and blood flowed out from his hands...

Then the armored elites at the front fell to the ground one after another, howling ghosts and wolves on the ground, and there was filled with smoke everywhere in the position, and the crackling sound seemed like the surrounding vegetation was snapped by something.

For a short while, his brain froze...

Because Zhou Xingfeng couldn't understand what happened in front of him for a while.

When he came back to his senses, there were wailing everywhere in the distance. Many soldiers had broken legs and feet, crying and crawling forward on the ground.

The sound like a bolt from the blue continued, and every time it sounded, it was accompanied by flames and thick smoke. A large number of soldiers around were brought down, and soldiers in the distance were inexplicably injured or killed.

The corpses on the ground became shattered, and the frightened soldiers didn't know what happened. There were not many dead, but they all backed away in horror amidst the thunder, as if they had seen a ghost.

The explosion and flames and smoke lasted for a while, the sand was dyed red, and there were broken limbs and arms everywhere. The Wuping soldiers backed away in fright, making way for a large gap of dozens of steps.

Zhou Jun took advantage of this gap to rush up the slope that they had not conquered for a long time in the bloody battle, and then a large number of Zhou Jun soldiers rushed up, losing the condescending position, coupled with the previous fright, the Wuping Army in the western section was quickly defeated and collapsed.

There was a huge opening forty or fifty steps long in the overall defense line of the riverside.

.......

Not only the soldiers, even Zhou Xingfeng himself felt as if he had seen a ghost. He who had always spoken sweetly didn't even know what to scold at this moment.

Seeing that the situation was not right, the subordinates had already reacted, and quickly helped the sluggish Zhou Xingfeng off the sentry tower, got on a horse and escorted him to the south.

Wu Ping's army was originally no match for Zhou's army. Now if there is a gap in this two-mile-long overall front, there is no room for recovery.

A gap was opened by Zhou Jun in the west, and Zhou Jun began to pour in in large numbers, rushing up the riverside road.

This avenue was originally behind the river bank, and it was the main artery for transporting supplies and replenishing troops for the entire riverside defense line. Because of its existence, the army of the southern battalion could be continuously replenished to the riverside, the wounded could be sent back, and the supplies could be sent to the river. Go to the defense line by the river.

Now a large number of Zhou troops are pouring into this main artery, and Zhou Jun followed this easy road, and quickly penetrated and surrounded the enemy from the side and back.

Many Wuping soldiers on the riverside defense line were confronting the Zhou army, and suddenly found that there was an enemy army emerging from behind them.

Those who didn't run were flanked back and forth, and the whole army was wiped out.

The battle lasted until the afternoon, and more and more Zhou troops detoured along the mainland along the river from the gap in the west, and on the two-mile-long river bank, the soldiers who went eastward were less aware of what happened, but as time went on, the war The balance of victory and defeat is gradually tilting, and the overall situation is becoming more and more obvious.

Just as Shi Congyun predicted at the beginning, hundreds of fire mines are nothing in front of tens of thousands of troops. These hundreds of fire mines only blow up a gap at a key point, affecting the victory of a small part of the entire long defense line. burden.

Afterwards, the impact of the outcome of this point began to expand, and finally affected the overall situation, deciding this difficult riverside battle.

At sunset, the defense line of the Wuping Army on the west side collapsed completely, and the Zhou army who boarded the south bank surrounded the enemy towards the east, and the Wuping Army, which was surrounded from the side, began to collapse gradually, and faster and faster.

Over time, a large number of Wuping troops on the two-mile-long front began to flee to the south, while the Zhou army surrounded them from the front and west sides, chasing and killing them all the way, capturing and killing a large number of Wuping soldiers.

Just at this time, Zhou Dynasty general Wang Huan also led troops to attack from the east, which caused the morale of the Wuping army to collapse.

The battle lasted from less than noon until sunset, and the situation became more and more clear. This head-on cross-river competition involving tens of thousands of people from both sides finally came to an end gradually, and the winner was determined.

Slowly, Wuping soldiers also found that their commander had already fled. On the south bank of the river, there were Wuping soldiers fleeing like ants all over the mountains and plains. Many people fled along the roads and trails to Yuezhou in the west.

In fact, there were quite a few soldiers from the Great Zhou, because the situation was too chaotic and complicated, and it was no longer possible to distinguish between the enemy and the enemy.

........

In Jiangbei, as the sun was about to set, the top of the mountain became colder, and the wind in the river became stronger and stronger. Shi Congyun could smell the bloody smell from the opposite bank even from a long distance away.

After the battle, the waves on the riverside were completely dyed red, and a large number of corpses, limbs and broken arms were floating in the river, but everything was not so conspicuous until dusk.

The fiery red sunset dyed the river into blood, and no matter how difficult it is to distinguish which is blood and which is water, it seems that everything is not so important.

Shi Congyun could see clearly that the casualties in this battle were heavy, and the beachhead troops of the Zhou army fought very hard. If the western front was not suddenly broken through by Huo Lei's surprise attack, the outcome is still unknown.

This shows that Zhou Xingfeng does have something.

At dusk, many small boats came and went, bringing all kinds of news from the south on the river, most of which were good news, such as the Zhou army broke through, surrounded the Nanping army from the side, the Nanping army began to be defeated, Wang Huan led a surprise army to attack the enemy from the east, etc. Wait.

After the initial stalemate and anxiety, good news kept coming one after another.

When the sky gradually darkened, Shi Congyun left the commander of the First Army of the Fourth Chamber of Controlling Crane, and Sun Yu led the troops to stay to guard the ferry on the north bank, and he took a boat and led the crossing of the Yangtze River by himself.

When crossing the Yangtze River, many ship wrecks left during the day have washed downstream or on the shore, and floating corpses floating on the river can still be seen from time to time.

After landing on the shore, the water on the river was still red, and many boatmen were setting up boats to help salvage the soldiers' bodies.

The corpses that were picked up were stripped to pieces, and several hills had been piled up by the river. At this time, it was hard to tell whether it was the Zhou army or the Wuping army.

After Shi Congyun got off the boat, the sky had completely dimmed, the sky was bright and full of moonlight, the stars were bright, and the river wind was mixed with a strong smell of blood. He ordered the officials in charge of salvaging the corpses: "Whether these corpses belong to our army or the Nanping army, they should be buried properly." Bar."