Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 324 Three Cavalry Battles
Because the government troops were defeated, Xiurong's atmosphere of preparing for war became more intense.

But entering Xiurong from Jinyang is obviously closer to Hengzhou, but the public security has improved.

Erzhu Rong used military law to govern the local area, and cavalry teams could often be seen along the way. When these teams saw Suben's caravan, they would send people to check it out, but they did not engage in bribery as they did in other places.

This already surprised Su Ben very much.

In this era, the mortality rate of being a traveling merchant was even higher than that of being a bandit.

Not to mention being a businessman during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, even being a businessman during the thirty years before Su Ze traveled through time was a matter of putting one's head on the belt.

Nowadays, we live in a turbulent time, and both officials and bandits may come to rob. Sometimes, government troops are even more ruthless than bandits.

Su Ben's caravan came from Guanzhong and flew under the banner of Danyang Duke Xiao Baoyin, which scared some government troops. Thanks to Su Ben's ability to [sense danger], they were able to enter Xiurong safely.

In the Northern Wei territory, apart from Su Ze, only Erzhu Rong can make his troops maintain order and not rob merchant caravans at will.

They are indeed elite.

Su Ben looked at the weapons and horses of these cavalrymen. Every cavalryman of Erzhu Rong was wearing neat armor and equipped with three weapons.

The so-called three weapons are the sword, spear and bow.

The most common cavalry only needs to know how to use one of the weapons, a gun or a bow. Those who use bows are rangers or cavalry archers. The children of nomadic peoples practice archery from a young age and can become cavalry archers as long as they are recruited into the army.

If you want to be proficient in two weapons, you need special training.

If the three weapons are complete, it means that the soldier can carry out three combat tasks at the same time: long-range strike, spear assault and close combat. This is the elite among the elite.

Now in Su Ze's army, only the [Guards Battalion] and [Cavalry Battalion], with a total of two thousand people, can all be fully equipped with three battle armors. If the elite scattered in the rest of the army are added, the total number will not exceed three thousand.

In addition, Su Ben also saw a cavalry. Each knight of this cavalry had two war horses specially used to carry armor. Each of the two horses carried a set of armor, and there was also a mounted auxiliary soldier following them.

This is the armored cavalry.

Armored cavalrymen did not wear armor before fighting, because a full set of armor weighed 60-100 kilograms on the back, and most people would not be able to walk in it.

"When wearing armor and fighting, one can only charge three breaths." This means that it is very remarkable if one can charge three times while wearing such armor.

Therefore, normal armored cavalry, when not performing combat missions, need to prepare a horse to carry the armor, and also need an auxiliary soldier to help put on the armor before the battle.

However, Erzhu Rong's cavalry was not just carrying one set of armor, but two sets of armor, which means that this was a heavy armored cavalry.

Only warriors with exceptional physical strength can fight wearing two sets of armor. There are less than a hundred such soldiers in Su Ze's army.

But Su Ben had already seen two centuries of heavy cavalry along the way.

This General Erzhu is truly unpredictable in his abilities!
On the other hand, Su Ben couldn't even imagine what Erzhu Rong wanted to do with such a powerful chieftain maintaining so many elite troops!

Erzhu Rong implemented a very strict baojia system in Xiurong and governed the local area through collective military law. Su Ben had no way to leave spies in Xiurong, and even sending his men to scout the terrain would be suspected.

Su Ben could only collect some simple maps, write a report of what he saw and heard along the way, and send it to Su Ze.

After receiving Su Ben's report and seeing the drawn map, Su Ze drooled. He finally understood why Erzhu Rong was able to rise so quickly. The location of Bingzhou was so important!
With the towering Taihang Mountains and the mountains and rivers surrounding it, the State of Zhao was able to contend with the State of Qin during the Warring States Period because of the natural pass of Bingzhou.

Moreover, since entering Bingzhou, the road has been difficult to travel. The entire Bingzhou can be said to be a super huge pass with dangerous passes everywhere.

The Taihang Mountains separate Bingzhou, Hengzhou and Hedong, but the Eight Passes of Taihang also connect them to the outside.

From Jinyang to the east, you can enter Jizhou by passing through Jingxing. Since the rebellion in Jizhou, Yuan Tianmu blocked Jingxing with his army and continuously absorbed refugees from Jizhou who moved to Bingzhou.

Therefore, after the turmoil in Hedong, Yuan Tianmu, the governor of Bingzhou, absorbed the fleeing nobles from Dingzhou and Jizhou and digested their talents.

It was precisely because of these Jizhou scholars that formed the bureaucratic system that Yuan Tianmu was able to deal with the powerful families in Bingzhou so easily.

The military talents among them were sent to Xiurong by Yuan Tianmu, and all of them were absorbed by Erzhu Rong.

These Erzhu family cavalrymen along the way were specifically responsible for escorting the reorganized gentry to Xiurong.

Su Ze finally understood why Yuan Tianmu had such an important and transcendent position in the Erzhu family system.

In addition to Erzhu Rong's trust in him, the entire Erzhu Group's government system was actually built by Yuan Tianmu.

Since there was no chance to leave spies behind, Su Ze ordered Su Ben to continue heading north to Hengzhou.
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When Prince Yuan Shen of Guangyang received the news that Prince Yuan Gong of Guangling was defeated, all his horses and weapons were given away to the rebels, and only a few dozen riders escaped, he was so angry that he almost vomited blood.

There is still a difference between being defeated and being defeated.

If it was just an ordinary defeat, Yuan Shen would not be so angry if Yuan Gong had fought to the death or brought back some troops.

What is Lingqiu? Feihu Pass, one of the Eight Passes of Taihang Mountain, is located here. Xianyu Xiuli opened up Lingqiu and thus opened up the passage to Hengzhou.

Yuan Gong's army was annihilated, which meant that there was no more government troops in the southeast of Hengzhou and north of the Sanggan River. Now the army from Luoyang had not yet arrived in Pingcheng, and Yuan Shen did not have many troops. Once the rebels broke into Hengzhou, Yuan Shen, who was stationed in Zhuolu, would be in danger.

Du Luozhou of Shanggu got the news and began to try to build a pontoon bridge on the Yanshui River and launched several tentative attacks.

Yuan Shen's army needed to be supplied from Pingcheng. Once Xianyu Xiuli controlled the Sanggan River, Yuan Shen's army would not be able to keep up with the supply.

What's even more terrifying is that if Xianyu Xiuli and Du Luozhou attack from both sides, or if Xianyu Xiuli directly attacks the poorly defended Pingcheng, the entire Hengzhou will be in danger.

In a blink of an eye, because of Yuan Gong's great defeat, the entire Hengzhou government army was at an absolute disadvantage.

Pei Yan looked at the map for a long time and said to Yuan Shen:

"Grand Commander, abandon Zhuolu and retreat to Pingcheng to wait for the imperial army. Let Bingzhou Governor Yuan Tianmu send troops to Jingxing to contain Xianyu Xiuli and join forces to rescue us. This is our only chance."

"no!"

Yuan Shen expressed his opposition almost instinctively.

Seeing Pei Yan's puzzled look, Yuan Shen said:

"Erzhu Rong is very ambitious. If he is allowed to enter Ji and Ding states, the disaster will be even greater than that of the rebels!"

This was not the first time Pei Yan had heard Yuan Shen say this, but now the Hengzhou army was in a desperate situation. Even if it was like drinking poison to quench thirst, it was time to use Bingzhou soldiers.

Yuan Shen thought for a long time and said:

"Retreat to Pingcheng!"

Pei Yan frowned and said:

"We are retreating without a fight today, giving up Zhuolu, the gateway to Hengzhou, to the court?"

Since Yuan Shen took command of the troops again, Hejian King Yuanchen, headed by him, launched a new round of attacks on him.

Empress Dowager Hu also did not trust Yuan Shen, the "remnant of Yuan Yi". If she retreated to Pingcheng without fighting, she would probably be impeached by the court again.

Yuan Shen gritted his teeth and said:

"Giving up Zhuolu and defending Pingcheng is the only way out. If the ancestral mausoleum is lost in my hands, I will become a criminal subject of Wei."

Pei Yan suddenly understood that there were tombs of many emperors of the Wei Dynasty near Pingcheng. If the rebels destroyed the ancestral tombs, it would be an unforgivable crime.

Pei Yan now understood that defending Pingcheng was a political battle and Yuan Shen had no choice at all.

But retreat is not so easy.

When an army is marching normally, there is a possibility of deserters, and there are many armies that collapse during the march.

When retreating, morale is low and there is also pressure of being pursued by the enemy. Leading the army to retreat safely tests the general's ability even more.

Back then, when the six towns were in chaos and Po Liu and Han Baling had blocked their retreat routes, Li Chong was still able to lead the army back to Pingcheng intact. This is enough to prove that Li Chong's reputation as a "sleeping tiger" is not undeserved.

In addition, in order to evacuate from Zhuolu, it was necessary to take away the weapons, food, and craftsmen in the city, and to destroy Zhuolu's city defenses to create favorable conditions for a possible counterattack in the future.

Therefore, in order to retreat, one must advance. Yuan Shen handed over the affairs of Zhuolu to Pei Yan, and led his elite troops out of the city to fight a battle with Du Luozhou's vanguard.

Du Luozhou's vanguard was wearing a ghost mask and looked at Yuan Shen from afar on the battlefield. Yuan Shen launched a surprise attack while the opponent's formation was not stable and successfully broke the vanguard's formation.

But what surprised Yuan Shen was that the vanguard Du Luozhou wearing a ghost mask quickly reorganized his position and even took the lead in counterattacking, almost cutting off Yuan Shen's army.

Thanks to the lack of elite guards of the ghost-faced vanguard, Yuan Shen was able to block his penetration with his superior military strength. Du Luozhou also saw that something was not right and quickly called back his troops. The rebels withdrew to the other side of the river. Yuan Shen finally won the battle after risking his life to fight outside the city.

But there was actually such a powerful general among the rebels. Yuan Shen was also frightened and he almost fell into disgrace today.

Since the rebels retreated to the other side of the river, Yuan Shen sent people to launch a surprise attack at night and burned the pontoon bridge, then took away the weapons, food and craftsmen in Zhuolu City, demolished the city gates and key city walls, and then immediately led his troops to retreat to Pingcheng.

By the time Du Luozhou discovered the movements of the government troops and worked hard to repair the pontoon bridge, Yuan Shen had already withdrawn for five days.

However, Du Luozhou was still very satisfied with the occupation of Zhuolu, an important city. He ordered his troops to plunder Zhuolu City, and wailing sounds filled the entire water.

After entering the city, the Ghost-faced Vanguard took off his ghost mask, revealing a handsome face.

In fact, to this day, Gao Huan was half-forced to join the rebels, so he always appeared on the battlefield wearing a ghost mask.

Du Luozhou does not know how to win over the local people. He just robs wherever he can. This is no different from how he defeated Liu Han Baling back then. I'm afraid he won't be able to last long.

But the government troops were even worse, and even Gao Huan was confused.

(End of this chapter)