All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 300: Defeating the Henghai Army and Rebuilding Zhuangshandu

"General, two hundred and seventy-two people surrendered yesterday. Fifty-nine of them and their families were retained."

As the army marched north, local people, united societies, and even county soldiers came to join the army every day along the way.

After all, in the chaotic times at the end of the Tang Dynasty, there were constant attacks and fighting, and human lives were worthless.

We have encountered the Little Ice Age again, and survival is difficult.

As long as I can support myself and my family, it doesn’t matter whether I become a thief or not.

Chen Ran also asked the usual question, "Are there any outstanding people?"

He asked this question every day because he didn't want to miss the chance to have his name recorded in history books.

I had never encountered it before, but I did today.

Pang Shigu thought for a moment and responded, "There is a man named Zhang Guiba from Qinghe County who has come to surrender with three brothers. He is quite brave and capable."

"Oh?"

Chen Ran became interested and immediately asked, "Bring it to me."

Those who come to join the army are originally from the regular army. Those who are outstanding and excellent can be directly incorporated into the combat troops, and the rest can be incorporated into the auxiliary troops.

As for ordinary people, unless they performed outstandingly, they could only work as laborers in the various camps and teams of the old camp.

When Zhang Guiba entered the camp, he displayed his bravery and martial arts, and was admitted to the auxiliary camp as an exception.

As long as he makes military achievements in the future, such as capturing a soldier's head, he can be promoted to a regular officer.

At this time, he was happily leading his two younger brothers to prepare for dinner. The food in the auxiliary barracks must be much better than that of the civilian laborers.

Unexpectedly, before he had time to get his meal, Pang Shigu, who came hurriedly, brought him to Chen Ran.

'Meet the historical figure Zhang Guiba, who is both wise and brave, and has outstanding abilities. He defeated Qin Zongquan, Li Keyong, Zhu Jin, Liu Rengong and other famous generals, killed more than 100,000 enemies in his life, and was loyal to Zhu Wen.'

'Note: You can modify two of the words.'

Zhang Guiba is a man of outstanding abilities and a murderous intent.

He fought throughout his life and killed more than 100,000 enemy soldiers.

These are not just civilians making up the numbers, but real soldiers and horses.

There are really not many famous generals in history who have such military achievements.

Chen Ran nodded and immediately changed "To Zhu Wen is loyal and devoted" to "To Chen Ran is loyal and devoted".

He took a few steps forward and looked at Zhang Guiba. "I intend to wipe out Shen Ke and bring a new look to the people of the world. Are you willing to lend me a hand?"

Zhang Guiba's body trembled, and he immediately bowed and said, "I am willing to die for the general!"

It’s just talk for the people of the world, don’t take it seriously.

Everyone put their heads on the line to fight in order to stand out and make a class breakthrough.

Of course, it is not easy to say such words directly, so the banner of serving the people must be raised.

'Note: Zhang Guiba's modification has been completed, and rewards are now being issued.'

'Note: 10,000 pieces of frozen pork will be distributed.'

"Good stuff." Chen Ran was very satisfied with it.

In the last days, people are almost starving to death, so there is very little opportunity to raise livestock for meat.

A small number of cattle and horses have more important functions, but delicacies like sheep are only affordable by powerful and wealthy families.

The soldiers and civilians all needed meat.

It's definitely a good thing to use to boost morale.

In this way, Chen Ran liked Zhang Guiba even more. "You will join the personal guard."

"Thank you, General!"

Qinghe County is the seat of Beizhou, and further north is the territory of Henghaijun Town.

There are two ways for Chen Ranbei to go to Youzhou Town. One is through Chengdejun Town, and the other is through Henghaijun Town.

The only reason to go to Henghaijun Town is that there are a lot of horse ranches and a large number of horses here.

"Youzhou Iron Cavalry."

"The Qin and Han dynasties have already surrendered. For many years, Youzhou has been known for its strong cavalry. Without enough cavalry, how can we defeat Youzhou?"

The Henghai Army was located in the Cangzhou and Dezhou areas. Just like the Ziqing Town was called the Pinglu Army, the Henghai Army was also called the Yichang Army.

Among the various towns in Hebei, Henghaijun was the only one that was still somewhat influenced by the imperial court.

Just like the current governor of Henghai Army, Zheng Guang (Zi Hanqing), is the nephew of the former Empress Dowager Zheng, a typical relative by marriage.

In the late Tang Dynasty, if one wanted to rise to power in the imperial court, one had to either be born into an aristocratic family or be a relative of the royal family.

Historically, Wang Duo, who took over, was on his way to take up his post in Henghai Army when he passed by Weizhou and his entire family was killed by Le Congxun.

Zheng Guang's life was not easy. He relied on his family background to get to the top, and he had no other skills except drinking and having sex.

Moreover, the Henghai Army had arrogant guards within it, and powerful vassal states such as Youzhou and Chengde were eyeing it covetously, and they wanted to fight every now and then.

When Zheng Guang heard that Huang Chao had sent a detachment of troops into the country, his first thought was to hide. He closed the city gates and pretended that he could not see it.

But the Henghai Navy soldiers refused to do so.

The warriors at the end of the Tang Dynasty were very arrogant. Unless there was a compelling reason, they would definitely fight if someone invaded their territory.

This is completely different from a certain commander-in-chief in the late Ming Dynasty who defended the city to the death when the enemy came, allowing the Tartars to wreak havoc and harm the people.

That great commander-in-chief was not even as good as an ordinary warrior in the late Tang Dynasty.

Faced with the coercion of the guards, Zheng Guang had no choice but to bite the bullet and send troops. The two sides met near Nanpi County, on both sides of Wudigou.

"There are so many cavalrymen." Looking at the dense cavalrymen on the other side of the river, Chen Ran wanted to shout, "Oh, they are all oh~~~"

The experienced Chen Ran knew that the best way to restrict cavalry was terrain.

He sent an envoy across the river by boat to deliver a letter to Zheng Guang.

The content of the letter roughly means "Let's make an appointment to fight. I can retreat ten miles and let the Henghai Army cross the river for a decisive battle."

Originally, Chen Ran did not have high expectations. After all, anyone with a little ability could see that fighting with one's back to the water would place great restrictions on cavalry.

But unexpectedly, the other party actually agreed.

Chen Ran himself was suspicious, thinking that the other party was plotting something, so he took a lot of precautions.

Even after tens of thousands of Henghai troops spent several days crossing the Wudi Ditch and forming a battle array with their backs to the river, no conspiracy was seen.

The next thing is simple.

The Silver Spear Army, which had expanded to tens of thousands of soldiers, formed a large formation to engage in direct battle against the Henghai Army.

A large number of auxiliary troops surrounded the two wings, forming a semicircular pocket formation.

The way the Henghai Army responded left Chen Ran speechless.

They did not attack the weak wings, but instead placed the infantry on the two wings and used the cavalry to directly charge at Yinqiang Xiejie City!

The cavalry charged with such momentum that most of the infantry in the world could hardly resist.

But the Silver Spear Xiejies managed to hold on. Each of them was equipped with a long spear made of wood from Shiwu Mountain, and they formed a spear formation to resist the charging cavalry.

There were brave soldiers from the Henghai Navy who broke through the formation and broke into the army array, but the soldiers from the Silver Spear Xiaojie City did not disperse. Instead, they spontaneously surrounded them from all directions, pulled them off their horses with sickles, and then went forward to kill them.

Fighting by the river, the cavalry of Henghai Town lacked room for maneuver and could only charge into the military town head-on.

But the result of failing to break free was that they were pushed all the way back to the river, completely losing their combat capability.

After Chen Ran personally led the cavalry team, which was named Zhuangshandu, to rush to the riverside and killed Zheng Guang who was trying to escape in panic, the overall situation on the battlefield was decided. The next step was to collect the prisoners and clean up the battlefield.

After the war, Chen Ran specifically asked the prisoners of war from the Henghai Army why they had to cross the river and fight in unfavorable terrain?
The prisoners' response left him speechless: "They all thought they could win by just charging in."

The defeat of the main army meant that the Henghai Army lost its protective power, and several states were all under the attack of Chen Ran.

In the Henghai Army, Chen Ran unexpectedly met some people from aristocratic families.

They each had their own fortress and sent envoys to Chen Ran, expressing their willingness to contribute food, military supplies, and beauties in order to protect themselves, and even hinted that they were willing to work for him in order to gain the credit of following him.

"From the power of the dragon?"

These words really made Chen Ran laugh.

These aristocratic families, like those who surrendered to the emperor, are accustomed to changing their stance according to the situation.

Don't be fooled by how well behaved he is now. Once the opportunity comes, he will immediately cause trouble.

No need to say more, just look at the current Tang Dynasty and you will know.

These families, which have been passed down for thousands of years, have abundant human, material resources and connections, and are extremely good at using money and beauty to corrupt people's hearts.

Leaving them behind would be equivalent to leaving cancer cells behind.

"General Huang Chao has issued an order that all members of the aristocratic families shall be executed!"

Chen Ran naturally used Huang Chao's name to attack various forts and killed all the children of the aristocratic families.

As for the female relatives, they were distributed among the soldiers under his command.

However, his long-term abstention from women led to a lot of rumors circulating in the army.

Even Wang Yanzhang, Pang Shigu, Liu Xun and others looked at him strangely.

The modern world emphasizes personal freedom. Whether you want to get close to women is your own business.

But it’s different here. As a general, everyone is staring at him.

Chen Ran remained calm on the surface, but he was already preparing to find an opportunity to make arrangements.

For him, the biggest gain of the Henghai Navy here was the thousands of Henghai Navy cavalry prisoners and tens of thousands of horses of various types.

Horses are delicate creatures, and even nomadic tribes are usually unwilling to raise them.

In nomadic tribes, people would only raise horses if the tribal leaders gave the mandatory order.

Not to mention here in the Tang Dynasty, horses are very scarce.

The cavalry have received years of training and have a large number of horses, especially specially trained war horses. Not all horses can be used as war horses. They must be selected and trained. Usually, they are used for about ten years before they have to be retired and replaced, not to mention battle damage.

It is very troublesome to maintain them on a daily basis, and they eat a lot, which is why cavalry are so precious.

Chen Ran mixed the cavalry with the captured cavalry from the Henghai Army and reorganized the Zhuangshan Du.

At this time, he had two famous cities under his command, one was the Silver Spear Xiejie City with a number of over 10,000, and the other was the Zhuangshan City, which was mainly composed of cavalry, with about 7,000 cavalry.

Add to that the even larger number of auxiliary troops, the families of the old camp of civilian laborers, and so on, the number of people has reached as many as 70,000 to 80,000.

The need to capture Youzhou Town became increasingly urgent, but Chen Ran was not in a hurry to send troops.

Youzhou Town has more than 100,000 soldiers and a large number of elite cavalry. It is not a good choice to rush over rashly.

He stayed in Henghai Town with peace of mind, waiting for an opportunity.

When there is no opportunity, the enemy will take the initiative to create opportunities for you.

When various places began to collect grain, news came from Youzhou Town that the Uighur chieftain Li Maoxun had tricked and killed the surrender envoy Chen Gongyan, and immediately sent troops to Youzhou and defeated Youzhou Jiedushi Zhang Gongsu.

The traditional reserved program of the Tang Dynasty's vassal states, civil strife, is staged in Youzhou Town!

(End of this chapter)