All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 244: The Main Battle Determines the Fate of the Nation
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty~~"

The shouting woke Chen Ran up. Before he even opened his eyes, he subconsciously reached for his sword.

Obviously, this habit was learned from Prime Minister Cao.

"What's the matter?" Chen Ran saw by candlelight that the person coming was the guard outside the tent, and asked in a low voice, "What time is it?"

"Your Majesty," the guard responded hastily, "It's already 11:00 a.m., and the Japanese cavalry commander has urgent military information to report."

"Let him come in and talk!"

Chen Ran knew that he had placed this team of cavalry on the river bank specifically to observe the movements on the other side.

They came to report that it must be that the Western Army on the other side had taken action.

"Your Majesty." Du Yuhou entered and saluted. "There is a lot of smoke from cooking on the other side of the river. Thousands of soldiers are heading to the shore, and civilians are dragging boats and rafts, probably to cross the river."

"Are you ready to fight a decisive battle?" As Chen Ran was thinking for a while, another report came from outside the tent, "Your Majesty, the guards of the floating bridge on the river bank have come to report that someone on the other side of the river claims to be an envoy and wants to see Your Majesty."

"Are you here to surrender? Those who come to surrender will not be seen."

"The man who came claimed to be here to arrange a fight."

"Bring him here."

Chen Ran didn't recognize the person who came, but when he introduced himself, he immediately knew who he was.

"You can keep the money in my prefecture."

"Fuzhou Zhe Family?"

"Exactly."

The Zhe family was a local wealthy family in Yunzhong, and had taken root in Fuzhou and other places as early as the Tang Dynasty.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, the world was in chaos. The Zhe family gradually took control of Fuzhou and its surrounding areas. Later, they joined the Jin King Li Keyong and completely secured their control over the three states outside the Yellow River.

After that, he served successive overlords of the Central Plains, including Later Tang, Later Jin, Guo Wei, Chai Rong, and finally Zhao Song.

In order to deal with the threat from Western Xia, the Zhao Song Dynasty acquiesced to the existence of the local separatist regime of the Zhe family. Their family was also loyal to the Zhao Song Dynasty and did not surrender to the Jin people until they were defeated in a series of battles due to the growing power of the Jin people.

In the end, they were jointly destroyed by the Jin people and the Western Xia. The local power of the Zhe family, which had lasted for more than 200 years, disappeared only at this time.

The most famous person in the Zhe family is none other than the wife of the old general Yang Ye, the Golden Sword, Lady She.

The old lady's original surname was Zhe, but as it was passed around, it became Old Lady She.

"Go ahead." Chen Ran nodded. "What's the matter?"

"Mr. Tong has said that he is willing to fight you to the death." It is not easy to call someone a bandit to his face, so Zhe Kecun can only call you "Please retreat from the three tongues and let our army cross the river and form a battle line."

"Is Tong Guan bullying me because I haven't been educated?"

Chen Ran smiled, "The story of retreating three steps is not like yours."

He simply stood up and said, "I can fight, after all, I have to destroy your bandit army as soon as possible and give the people justice and peace!"

Zhe Kecun was furious, "We are all upright government troops, how could we be considered as bandits?"

"What have you done in the southeast and Huaixi? How are you different from the rebels? Do you think that everyone in the world is blind?" Chen Ran said calmly, "If you want to seek justice, I will send someone back to Bianliang City and ask the government to write an imperial edict, and the gentlemen will seal it, declaring you as rebels. I will give you as many imperial edicts as you want."

Zhe Kecun knew he was in the wrong, so he said nothing more, "Do you dare to fight?"

"Why don't you dare?"

Chen Ran thought for a moment and immediately agreed, "Our army will retreat 30 miles, which is enough time for you bandits to cross the river and set up your battle array. We will fight to the death tomorrow."

Zhe Kecun asked again, "Are you planning to attack us halfway across the river?"

"Don't provoke me with words. It won't work on me."

Chen Ran paused for a moment, and then said, "You know that if I use the strategy of delaying, I can force you to collapse. It's just that I don't want the people in various places to be tortured by you, so I gave you a chance to fight and destroy your bandit army in one fell swoop. Attack them halfway across the river? Leave half of the bandits to harm the people in the countryside?"

They were clearly government troops, but Chen Ran called them bandits and bandit army, which made Zhe Kecun very angry.

Fortunately, he knew what he was here for, so he bowed and left immediately.

The next thing was simple. After breakfast, the troops under Chen Ran retreated thirty miles one after another, leaving the land along the river bank vacant.

The other side obviously didn't believe that he would give up the good opportunity to attack halfway across the river in order to save the people from suffering from the war. After all, judging by themselves, if they were in his place, they would definitely not miss the opportunity to fight.

They sent small groups of troops across the river to conduct reconnaissance and probing. It was not until almost noon that they were sure that the other side had indeed retreated, and then they crossed the river in large numbers.

The people of Shouzhou, who were robbed, were forced to make simple rafts to carry people and supplies across the river.

After crossing the river, they still had to work hard to set up camp, and many people were exhausted to death.

As for the floating bridge, it is bustling with traffic.

By the time it was getting dark, most of the people had already crossed the river.

For the entire night, both sides were at peace, with only their respective scouts constantly fighting and testing each other.

On the next day, the Western Army took another morning to transport the troops over.

The two sides ate lunch separately in tacit understanding, and the food was unusually sumptuous.

Chen Ran even used all the fried chicken, roast duck, beef, mutton, various fruits, desserts, spices and other things he had received as rewards.

Only when you are well fed and well drunk can you have the strength to fight.

At three quarters after noon, both sides began to march out of the camp at the same time.

Before going to the battle, the generals under Chen Ran's command were loudly announcing to the soldiers, "If you kill a soldier one level higher, you will get a higher rank! You will have land, houses, salaries, and everything. Your descendants will enjoy the blessings and your descendants will be loyal to you forever~~~"

"Those who died on the battlefield will be rewarded generously without any delay! Those who have sons can inherit their iron rice bowls and join the Imperial Army to eat food, and those who don't have sons can adopt their sons to join the Imperial Army to eat food. This is what the king promised himself! Even if you brothers don't believe me, you should at least believe the king, right?"

"If someone deserts a battle, not only will he be beheaded, but all benefits for his family will be cancelled, and his descendants will not be allowed to enter the government, join the army, or serve as clerks! If one person deserts, the whole family will suffer~~~"

“Kill the enemies, kill the enemies! The chance to gain wealth and glory and open a family tree is right before our eyes. Kill the enemies!~~~”

I have to say that this kind of pre-war agitation is really dry, it is just a straightforward explanation of the benefits and punishments.

There is no ideal, no justice, and even less belief. However, the soldiers in the army buy into this!
When people are pushed into a corner, they are really not afraid of death.

The only difference is whether it feels worth it.

When the benefits are great enough, why fear death?

The soldiers were not afraid of death, and with the support of the Bianliang City arsenal with sufficient and sophisticated weapons, their combat effectiveness and fighting will were by no means as mob-like as the Western Army generals believed.

The Western Army was also distributing pre-war rewards, which were quite generous.

However, for the soldiers of the Western Army, this is all routine operation and there is nothing to get excited about.

The number of soldiers on both sides was too large. They left the camp and formed a line, then gradually approached each other. By the time the real battle started, the sun had already set.

A major battle is the only means to win a war. Only through a large major battle can the enemy's manpower be effectively annihilated, making it impossible for the enemy to obtain sufficient troops to carry out any powerful actions, thereby driving the enemy out of strategic points and achieving the goal of victory.

Once a country's army is defeated in a major battle, it will lose most of its manpower and technical weapons and will no longer be able to organize any offensive actions, or effective actions to achieve its goals.

The most typical example is the decisive battle between the Liao Kingdom and the Jin people.

After the Battle of Hubudagang, the main force of the Liao army was destroyed, and it was no longer able to stop the Jin army from sweeping across the country. Until the country was destroyed, it was unable to organize enough forces to resist.

In Chen Ran's opinion, today's battle is a good opportunity to completely defeat the main force of the Song Dynasty army.

There are indeed brave men who are willing to fight to the death with their backs to the river, but they are definitely not cowards like Tong Guan.

This can be concluded from the scout reconnaissance that the pontoon bridge has not been destroyed.

Amid the rumbling of drums, one phalanx after another continued to move forward in small steps.

The Western Army was a typical Song Army organization, with archers as its main combat force, and five to six out of ten soldiers and horses were archers.

In the era of muskets, this organization would be reasonable.

But in the era of cold weapons, as long as the opponent can withstand the shooting and rushes forward, you will be in trouble.

Chen Ran was different. He equipped his soldiers with armor and shields on a large scale and was determined to build a heavy infantry corps.

There was no way. The Song Dynasty lacked horses and it was impossible to form an invincible cavalry corps like the Tang Dynasty.

The battle between the two sides stretched for several miles.

When they were one hundred and fifty steps away, the Western Army crossbowmen began to shoot, and dense crossbow arrows fell from the sky like dark clouds.

When dealing with cavalry, the front-row soldiers should use spears. The spears mentioned here are the big ones like the dragon spears used in calvary battles, which are six or seven meters long.

When the infantrymen fight each other, they should use long weapons such as spears, halberds, and daggers to fight each other.

But now they are facing the Western Army which is mainly composed of archers. It doesn't matter if there is no cavalry for a quick charge. The infantry can deal with it with short spears more than two meters long, javelins on their backs and short swords on their waists, or shields in hand and short weapons in their hands.

As the generals at all levels roared, those who had shields in their hands raised them above their heads.

Those who didn't have shields simply lowered their heads and used their helmets and armor to resist.

The dense clanging sounds were mixed with screams from time to time.

Fortunately, at this time, the soldiers could only look at their own side and follow habitually, without any time to think about the casualties and losses.

Facing countless crossbow arrows, the only thing Zhang Wu Ge could do was to close his eyes and continue playing the suona.

Fortunately, he was lucky and the crossbow arrow did not hit him.

Military formations of all sizes continued to move forward in small steps in order to maintain the formation as much as possible.

When they were eighty steps away, the Western Army on the opposite side began to shoot soft arrows, and there were waves of clanging sounds.

Here we have to thank the Song Dynasty's policy of strengthening the trunk and weakening the branches.

The largest number and best quality armors in the entire Song Dynasty were all concentrated in the city of Bianliang.

Chen Ran couldn't possibly keep it for the Jin people to use, so almost every soldier who came out this time was wearing armor, and most of them were leather armor.

Even leather armor has extremely strong defensive capabilities against soft arrows.

At this time, the Western Army on the opposite side began to make some bold moves in Chen Ran's eyes.

After shooting three arrows in the battle, they actually stopped shooting arrows.

Then a large number of silver bowls and other rewards were quickly delivered to them, and then they continued to fight.

During this process, Bianliang City had already advanced to a distance of about fifty steps.

The sounds of drums, suonas, and the roars of generals at all levels merged together, and the military formation that stretched for several miles gradually came to a halt.

In front of the opposing archers, the generals at all levels began to desperately reorganize their ranks, trying to put the ranks that had become increasingly disjointed and disordered as they kept moving forward into order again.

At this time, the archers of the Western Army on the opposite side had already pulled out the heavy arrows that had been stuck in the ground and started shooting.

The distance of fifty steps is just on the verge of a full-scale increase in the lethality of the crossbowmen.

As the distance gets closer, the lethality of heavy arrows will increase dramatically.

The officers at all levels of the entire team were hit by concentrated fire, especially the captains, sergeants, and squad leaders who were running back and forth in the front of the team, who suffered heavy losses.

But their deputies quickly took over command and tried their best to organize the queue.

When hundreds of big drums started to roar in unison, the military formation stretching for miles began to sound dense and short suona sounds.

The soldiers gripped their weapons tightly and began to charge forward. This time they no longer took small steps, but ran quickly in small steps to meet the enemy despite the rain of arrows.

In the era of cold weapons, maintaining the military formation was the most important thing in warfare.

The illiterate soldiers who lacked organization relied entirely on the military formation to maintain their organization. Once the military formation was in disarray, collapse was inevitable.

Only when facing the final charge of the archers will they relax.

When they were twenty steps apart, the gradually loosened queue began to accelerate and launched a desperate charge!

(End of this chapter)