Chapter 355 Headache

Just when Han Lingkun led his army to ambush Sun Yu's troops, Zhang Yi also sent someone to report to Dong Zunhui: He had arrived in Zhengyang and found that the floating bridge was safe and sound, but the local defenders had no fighting spirit and had no effective defense at all. Zhang Yi was speeding up the organization of the defenders to build fortifications, and asked Dong Zunhui to provide fire.

Dong Zunhui frowned, took out the map and took a brief look, and called a leader of the defender who came here with Zhang Yi's messenger. Dong Zunhui gently pointed the map and asked, "Where is this? Is there any garrison in our garrison?"

The leader named Situ Heng stretched his neck and quickly replied: "General, there is Xiacai Town. There should be hundreds of our garrisons and catapults."

"Is there a catapult?" Dong Zunhui was a little surprised and asked quickly: "A light or a medium? I heard that Li Gu had mobilized all the catapults to Shouzhou. How could there be a catapult in Xiacai Town?!"

"It's a heavy catapult!" Situ Heng quickly replied: "They were going to cross the pontoon bridge from Zhengyang, but we were afraid that their equipment would crush the pontoon bridge, so we suggested that they go to Xiacai Town. The two sides of the river there were relatively narrower, and even if it was to build a heavier pontoon bridge, it would be easier than ours in Zhengyang."

Dong Zunhui was overjoyed. Because of the emergency aid, his army was not equipped with heavy weapons, so he could basically not face Liu Yanzhen's fleet head-on. However, the waterway in Xiacai Town was narrow and there were catapults as a companion, which was the best place to block Liu Yanzhen. Moreover, fighting in Xiacai Town, Zhengyang floating bridge could be prevented from being directly exposed to the enemy's range, greatly enhancing the safety factor.

So Dong Zunhui immediately ordered the entire army to move to Xiacai Town to block Liu Yanzhen's troops. Fortunately, Dong Zunhui, who was reborn, was lucky. When he arrived in Xiacai Town, not only did Liu Yanzhen's fleet not come, but also the four heavy catapults and six medium catapults mentioned by Situ Heng were still placed in place, although the soldiers who were manipulating them had already dispersed.

However, Dong Zunhui did not expect them. In Dong Zunhui's army, there were 200 rigorously trained catapult drivers. Since Dong Zunhui tasted the sweetness of long-distance guidance in Jinyang City, he has drawn personnel from the army to carry out this training, and also trained many catapult drivers. This time, when he went south, considering that there were many catapult drivers in Li Gu's army, Dong Zunhui specially brought them with him, but he did not expect to be a coincidence.

The terrain of Xiacai Town is very special. Not only is it easy to defend and difficult to attack, but the Huai River has also made a bend here, and the waterway has become a bit narrow. Although the water flow is not fast, it is also undercurrents, which is very dangerous. But as long as Xiacai Town is controlled, the Huai River can be controlled to travel!

Dong Zunhui immediately ordered all the catapults to move to the small hill next to Xiacai Town. This way, the catapults can shoot further, and there are also many rocks on the mountain, and stone bullets can be used locally. Next, except for some people building fortifications, the rest were collecting stones to make stone bullets.

Especially Xiacai Town is bordered by the Huai River and has convenient transportation. There are several warehouses in the town, which contain dozens of cans of vegetable oil. Dong Zunhui ordered them all to be moved up the mountain, and at the same time ordered people to prepare rattan balls for later use.

The entire army was busy for most of the night and then started to rest. Except for the soldiers on duty, most of them quickly fell asleep, and the camp was snoring.

At this time, Liu Yanzhen's fleet also broke down twenty miles east of Xiacai Town, and all the ships stopped.

Liu Yanzhen was neither smart nor knowledgeable in military strategy, and was very arrogant in dealing with others. He only knew how to be corrupt and abused the law. However, he also had a way to be promoted, which was to give gifts and constantly bribe important officials in the court. As a result, even Prime Minister Wei Cen recommended Liu Yanzhen to the emperor. Everyone said that his ability to govern the people was like Gong Sui and Huang Ba, and his ability to command the army to fight was as good as Peng Yue and Han Xin! The Southern Tang Emperor Li Jing was not careful for a while, so he appointed him as the commander of the entire army and ordered him to quickly rush to reinforce Shouzhou.

Seeing that the ship suddenly stopped moving forward, Liu Yanzhen ordered people to call the forward officer Xian Shilang and asked in surprise: "Why did we stop? Are there any other ships on the front channel? Even if there are other ships, we are all naval warships. Are you still afraid of them?"

Xian Shilang quickly replied: "Master-in-chief, the Huai River turned a big bend in front of it, and the water flowed rapidly. There was an undercurrent undercurrent under the seemingly calm water surface. Our army went upstream and had to pay attention. Moreover, I heard from the boatmen that the waterway ahead was very narrow, and it was inconvenient to sail at night, and the large ship was very likely to hit the cliffs on the river bank."

Liu Yanzhen nodded repeatedly, "So that's it. No wonder the navy troops refused to advance at night. There is such a saying. Then we quickly pass the waterway in front tomorrow, strive to arrive in Zhengyang tomorrow afternoon and burn down the floating bridge built by Li Gu!"

Xian Shilang agreed repeatedly and said a lot of flattery. When he said goodbye, Liu Yanzhen smiled and said, "General Xian, the night is long, and I have two small soldiers here who admire the general very much. I hope the general will teach them riding skills."

After Liu Yanzhen said that, he waved his hand and immediately walked up from the side. However, after a closer look, it was the soldiers pretending to be two maids. Xian Shilang was overjoyed and thanked him quickly. He quickly led them back to take the boat and taught "riding skills" all night!

It was dawn that Xian Shilang, who had sore waist and weak legs, finally got up from the bed and commanded the army to advance westward. At this time, five or six impatient ships rushed into the head and took the lead in breaking into the narrow waterway ahead.

Looking at the warships of the Southern Tang Army getting closer, Dong Zunhui shouted loudly: "Cattaker, attack!"

Hearing his order, four heavy stone casters that had already been on the strings immediately launched and ejected the rock bullets heavily. Three of them hit a Southern Tang army warship at the same time. One of the stone bullets just hit the crowd. With a puff, the surrounding area was already full of blood, becoming a living slaughterhouse. The other two were right in the front deck of the hull. Under the attack of the stone bullet, the warship was like paper-paste, easily penetrated by the stone bullets, and the river water soon emerged from the hole at the bottom of the ship!

The captain of the warship hurriedly ran to the two holes, looked down, and shouted in despair: "Abandon the ship, abandon the ship!"

Hearing his orders, the soldiers quickly jumped into the water and swam desperately towards the ships in the distance. The ships that were shot were also slowly sinking and soon disappeared under the water surface, leaving only a newly formed vortex.

The Zhou army's catapult car in Xiacai Town was quickly loaded and fired again. Then, the Nan Tang warship next to it was sunk. One ship after another, in just half an hour, seven warships were sunk by the catapult car, which scared the Nan Tang army's warships to retreat continuously and dared not move forward!

Liu Yanzhen also saw this scene on his own warship far away from the battlefield. He asked angrily: "Why don't you fight back? What are you waiting for?!"

Xian Shilang hurriedly stepped forward and explained: "Master General, look at the size of the stone bullet, there must be a heavy catapult troops stationed by Zhou army on the other side. Our ships are all light catapult cars, and the opponent is beyond our range, so we are unable to fight back."

Liu Yanzhen frowned, "Then let's land on the beach and fight them on land! If we are blocked by the enemy here, we will become a big joke!"

Xian Shilang did not dare to object, so he immediately mobilized a soldier in 20 warships to go to Xiacai Town to test the Zhou army's strength. During the process, three of the twenty warships were destroyed by the Zhou army's heavy catapult carts. Then, eight of them were hit by six light catapult carts of the Zhou army on the way to dock. Only nine warships successfully landed and unloaded less than 1,200 soldiers.

After landing, these soldiers immediately dispersed and rushed towards the hilltop occupied by the Later Zhou army. However, Dong Zunhui had 3,000 troops in his hands, so how could he worry about them? With the order of Dong Zunhui, Zhang Yi, Shi Shouxin, Han Chongyun, Cao Quan and others led a battalion of troops and rushed up quickly. In addition, the medium-sized catapult carts continued to carry out targeted removals, and the Zhou army easily defeated the Southern Tang troops.

However, just as the Zhou army was busy defeating these 1,200 people, the Southern Tang army took advantage of the great opportunity of Zhou army's medium-sized catapult car to transfer firepower and quickly landed. Under the command of Xian Shilang, five thousand troops rushed to the ashore and launched an attack on the mountain occupied by the Zhou army.

At this time, Dong Zunhui felt the trouble. He looked at the soldiers of the Southern Tang army who were rushing closer and closer, and ordered loudly: "Get on the twig ball!"

Hearing his order, the medium-sized catapult troops immediately put oil-soaked rattan balls into the basket, then lit the rattan balls and threw them out suddenly.

The vine balls were soaked with oil, and became a big fireball in the air. When it hit the ground, it was a sea of ​​fire; when it exploded in the air, it was a sea of ​​fire!

Xian Shilang didn't expect that the enemy would have such tricks, so he had to urge the soldiers to charge forward as much as possible and stick to the Zhou soldiers so as not to be attacked by the fireball. Even Xian Shilang himself was forced to rush into his head.

However, Xian Shilang did not expect that the Zhou army had a method of long-range guidance. Under the guidance of the soldiers, the catapults became more accurate and closer, and they were not afraid of accidental injuries. Don’t watch the pike balls slashing the soldiers’ scalp with the raging flames, but the turbulent oil did not fall on the Zhou soldiers.

The Southern Tang Army had tens of thousands of troops, and they were indeed confident of fighting. With no cost, they finally covered their catapults successfully landing and launched a fire with the Zhou army. At this time, the Zhou army's catapults were afraid of being intercepted by the enemy, so they did not dare to fire ignition eggs again. They could only throw stones to confront the Southern Tang Army.

Fight, fight, fight, fight from morning to noon, and from noon to night, noon to night, but noon surrendered! Seeing the Southern Tang army landing continuously, and the catapult cart on his side broke the Piscorer because of excessive frequent use, Dong Zunhui could only order the entire army to retreat!

However, on the way to retreat, Dong Zunhui did not encounter any pursuers. It seems that the Southern Tang army was also seriously injured! Then, see Zhengyang!

...


Chapter completed!