Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 635: Wu Qu and Wen Qu

"Mountains of gold and silver?"

After hearing the place name, Yang Yuan was in a daze for a moment and couldn't remember its exact location.

Staff Officer Bei immediately saw the opportunity and came forward, whispering something in his ear.

When Yang Yuan heard that the Gold and Silver Mountain was located in the central area of ​​Lingbi County, not far from the county seat, he immediately decided to use it as a gathering place to make it convenient for the Song troops scattered in the Lingbi area to converge here from all directions.

In fact, if they could quickly gather a group of troops and march north at this time to cut off the escape route of the Jin soldiers to the north, they could still achieve great results.

The Song army's soldiers now don't know where their generals are, and the generals don't know where their soldiers are. The situation of the Jin army should be similar.

In this situation, he only needed one or two thousand soldiers to annihilate the Jin soldiers one by one before they could slowly regroup.

But he didn't have such a mobile force at hand.

The Song army gathered at the foot of the gold and silver mountain are also flesh and blood, they are not made of iron.

Even a man with great physical strength and resilience like Yang Yuan is now exhausted after a night of non-stop fighting. How can he expect his soldiers to be able to run long distances and engage in battle again?

Alas, it was limited by the conditions of the times...

Yang Yuan thought with some regret, if there was a radio, it would be easy to contact the various units that had not yet joined the battle as well as the troops in Huaixi. In that case...

Thinking of this, Yang Yuan suddenly thought of Shao Hongyuan's troops.

Shao Hongyuan, as the commander-in-chief of the Huaixi Front Army, was sent by him to attack Xuzhou.

When Belle helped him draw up this strategic plan, it was just the best plan he could come up with under various objective conditions, so it could be considered a "spare chess move".

If Shao Hongyuan were asked to reinforce Huaidong directly from Huaixi, it would probably be difficult for him to obey decisively.

Shao Hongyuan was in charge of his own defense zone and transferred the main force to the east. If something happened on the western front, the important town of Jiankang would be endangered.

Moreover, the journey from Huaixi to Huaidong is long, and the role he can play is limited, because it is difficult for him to arrive in time to provide reinforcements.

But if he were to go north to attack Xuzhou, his own western defense zone would not be under too much pressure.

Moreover, his attack on Xuzhou was just a feint, mainly to confuse the enemy and attract the Jin army.

Yang Yuan did not require him to really capture Xuzhou. He had greater freedom to advance and retreat, which was a combat plan that Shao Hongyuan could accept.

Another thing is that Yang Yuan had never thought that the battle on Lingbi's side would end in such a "worst" way.

If the war here is stalemate, then when news comes that Song troops have appeared in Xuzhou, the Jin soldiers in Lingbi will worry that their retreat will be cut off, and this will create a better situation for the Song troops in Lingbi.

Now, the two sides are fighting fiercely, and the Jin army can only retreat and gather at the same time, and maybe they will encounter Shao Hongyuan's troops.

Thinking of this, Yang Yuan immediately gathered the horses, selected the lightly injured soldiers and began to act.

First, he sent more than twenty light cavalrymen north.

The reason why Yang Yuan sent out so many people was because there were probably quite a few defeated Jin soldiers fleeing north, and it would be difficult to protect themselves with fewer people.

Even so, Yang Yuan also instructed them that if they encountered scattered Jin soldiers along the way, they should just avoid them and make a detour without engaging in battle.

Their goal was to rush to Xuzhou and tell Shao Hongyuan about the situation there. Shao Hongyuan would naturally know what to do.

Then, Yang Yuan sent out all the remaining cavalry. At this time, he had only more than 200 cavalrymen, to search the entire Lingbi battlefield.

In order to guard against the Jin army of a considerable size, the two hundred cavalrymen were divided into two teams, searching in an arc towards both wings with the Gold and Silver Mountain as the center.

When they saw the scattered soldiers of the Song army, they would tell them the location and ask them to gather there.

If you encounter a small group of Jin soldiers, eat them up if you can, but if you can't, bypass them and let them escape north.

Finally, Yang Yuan sent out some infantrymen to look for nearby villages, find their village chiefs, and ask for help with food, medicine, etc.

Yang Yuan also wants to get more help from Lingbi County through them.

The purpose of the Jin army's battle at Lingbi was to destroy the elite main force of the Song army, not to capture cities and plunder land, so the local people were not severely harassed this time.

Although the people were hiding and fleeing after the large-scale appearance of the Jin army, most of them hid in places not too far from their towns and villages, so they were relatively easy to find.

There were still sporadic battles on the Lingbi battlefield that morning.

Like Yang Yuan, Song army generals such as Li Xianzhong, Lu Tianming, and Liu Molin also gathered some remnant soldiers and gradually formed a larger team.

They were basically doing what Yang Yuan was doing, except for sending people to Xuzhou to look for Shao Hongyuan.

Because they either didn't know Shao Hongyuan's movements, or even if they knew, they had no authority to give orders to Shao Hongyuan.

When the cavalry sent by Yang Yuan found them and informed them of Yang Yuan's whereabouts, they cheered up and led their troops to gather in the direction of Jinyin Mountain.

In addition, local governments of Song State also played a role.

The armies of Song and Jin used Lingbi as their main battlefield, and the total number of troops mobilized by both sides exceeded 200,000. Wouldn't all parties be paying close attention to a war of this scale?

The officials of nearby prefectures and counties, such as Sihong, Xuyi, Wuhe, Bengbu, Huaiyuan, and Suzhou, all sent scouts to Lingbi to spy on the situation.

The battle last night was heard by everyone on all sides, but they did not dare to go deep into the battlefield at night. When it was dawn, some brave scouts carefully went deep into the battlefield to get a better understanding of the situation.

What they learned was that in the battle last night, almost all the troops on both sides were wiped out.

This seems to be the case. They approached the battlefield area to scout the situation and actually rescued some scattered Song soldiers along the way. Among them, scouts sent from Suzhou and Sihong even captured a few Jin soldiers from the bushes.

After the news came back, officials in these places immediately organized militia and rushed to Lingbi to take advantage of the situation.

Afterwards, local gentry and landlords prepared food, grass and medical supplies, and led their farmhands and servants to Lingbi to reward the troops.

Troops from all walks of life on the Lingbi battlefield rushed to Jinyin Mountain one after another, and more and more troops gathered here.

At this time, even if there were still organized Jin troops that had not been disbanded, they would hardly pose a threat to them.

Generals such as Li Xianzhong, Lu Tianming, and Liu Molin successively led teams of hundreds or thousands of people to rush here.

Yang Yuan immediately returned the military power to Li Xianzhong.

Li Xianzhong used Jinshan and Yinshan as support points to establish two temporary garrisons that supported each other.

The seriously injured were placed on the innermost side, while the rest of the troops built fortifications on the outer side.

Once the fortifications were completed, some troops were left behind to defend them, while the rest were sent out in teams of 300 to clean up the battlefield in all directions.

Their mission was to wipe out the remnants of the Jin army, shelter the scattered soldiers of the Song Dynasty, clean up the battlefield, and count the losses and spoils.

On the third day, militia teams from nearby counties and prefectures arrived in Lingbi County.

They call this behavior "blocking taro".

Taro has been grown in large quantities in the local area since the Tang Dynasty.

However, when farmers harvest taro, there will inevitably be some taro buried in the soil that cannot be harvested. So the old men, women and children would go to the taro fields where others have harvested taro and carefully turn the soil to pick up the missed taro.

Since they want to pick this kind of taro, they have to carefully turn over other people's fields from beginning to end, which will be of great benefit to their planting next year.

So the landlords did not object, and even welcomed it very much, so everyone gained something.

Now, the militiamen sent by various counties claimed that they were here to "stop the taro" and began a carpet search in the entire Lingbi area.

As a result, they rescued many Song soldiers and killed and captured some Jin soldiers who were hiding in woods, grass, reeds, etc.

The Song army sent out soldiers to count the casualties, but whenever they arrived at the places that had been "blocked by taro", they found that most of the bodies of the Jin soldiers were naked because their clothes had been stripped off.

Fortunately, their identities can still be identified through their hairstyle and other identifications.

By noon on the third day, the Song army's battle report was finally compiled.

When seeing the statistical results of the battle losses, generals such as Li Xianzhong could not help but tremble all over.

They were the participants in this war and had long anticipated the cruelty and severity of this war, but the statistical results were still far beyond their expectations.

In this battle, the total number of Song army troops who arrived at Lingbi area and participated in the battle was 110,000, of which more than 50,000 were killed, and the number of seriously injured has not yet been counted.

The Song army did not know the total number of Jin soldiers deployed in the battle, because both sides were constantly increasing their troops with the tactic of adding fuel to the fire, and the Song army was unable to accurately calculate the total number of troops on the other side.

However, when cleaning up the battlefield, they found more than 40,000 Jin army corpses and captured more than 20,000 wounded, disabled and scattered soldiers.

This is because this was the area controlled by the Song State after all. After the two sides were defeated, the Jin soldiers could only flee northward spontaneously. Some were unable to escape and could only wait to die or be captured on the spot.

Those who struggled to escape received no help or support, and had to hide from the Song army and the people in the Song villages and towns.

By the time the militia from the surrounding counties and prefectures came happily to "stop the taro", they had no way to escape and could only be "stopped".

The Song army's scattered soldiers and those injured and unable to move were rescued by their own people.

Li Xianzhong didn't know how many troops the Jin Kingdom had deployed this time, but he knew that the Jin Kingdom had 110,000 permanent combat troops on the Lianghuai front. Together with the signed troops and local armed forces, the total strength should be similar to that of the Song Kingdom.

Among them, the Huaidong area was where the Jin soldiers set up an ambush, and later a large number of cavalry were transferred from Huaixi, so the total strength of the Jin soldiers in Huaidong should be greater than that of the Song army.

With this calculation, the Song army not only won, but it was a great victory!

In a normal battle, if the casualties exceed 10%, it is very easy for the three armies to be defeated.

But in this battle, the casualty ratio reached such an alarming level!
Such heavy damage and results were mainly the result of the battle that occurred from yesterday afternoon to this morning, a period of half a night.

The Song army was trapped in a trap and its total strength was weaker than that of the Jin army, but it still achieved such a result. Who dares to say that it was not a great victory?

Even an old veteran like Li Xianzhong could not suppress his excitement. As he staggered to report the battle results to Yang Yuan, his hands holding the battle table were shaking constantly.

After hearing this, Yang Yuan pondered for a moment and said, "I understand. Send the battle report to the court."

Li Xianzhong was stunned after hearing this. Our army won a great victory, a great victory!
Moreover, you, General Yang, have made great contributions, how can you... be so calm?

"Yes, I will obey your orders!"

Li Xianzhong unconsciously used honorifics and regarded himself as a subordinate to Yang Yuan.

He looked at Yang Yuan in awe, took a few steps back, and then turned around.

As for reporting victory, that naturally has to be reported.

But seeing that Yang Zhuangyuan had achieved such amazing military exploits in one battle, he not only planned and commanded the entire battle himself, but also led the charge and participated in the entire battle.

Such a person is comparable to a combination of Guo Ziyi and Li Siye during the Battle of Xiangji Temple in the Tang Dynasty, but he is able to remain neither arrogant nor impatient and is so calm.

What is there for Li Xianzhong, the rescued coach, to be proud of?
So his mentality immediately stabilized.

Yang Yuan watched Li Xianzhong leave, shook his head slightly, and felt very regretful.

More than 50,000 versus more than 40,000, we are at a loss!
However, our army advanced rashly at the beginning, and the main force of the front army was trapped, which put us at a disadvantage.

In this situation, our army was able to turn the tide, rescue the trapped main force of the Imperial Guards, and drive away the superior Jin Army with inferior forces. This is barely... acceptable, right?

Yang Yuan thought secretly.

He simply skipped over the matter of capturing more than 20,000 Jin soldiers.

He also omitted the fact that the Lianghuai Campaign ended with the victory of the Song Dynasty.

Perhaps it was because he had read too many epic novels in later generations, so Yang Yuan didn't feel that he had won the battle unless the casualties were a hundred to one.

What bothered him most was that more of his people died than those of the Jin Dynasty.

He didn't care how many of them died in the early stages of defeat, how many died while trying to break out during the siege by the elite of the front army, or how many died when they were outnumbered.

He knew that more of his men died than the enemy.

He holds a grudge.

Another thing that made him depressed and unable to be happy was that the whereabouts of Himeka, Kona and Kanon were still unknown.

As troops from various places gathered towards Gold and Silver Mountain one after another, Fei Yuye and Leng Yuchan had already returned.

However, there has been no news about the three sisters from Japan so far.

Yang Yuan couldn't imagine what happened to them. Were they beheaded and lying on a muddy grass slope without being discovered?

Or was she discovered to be a girl by the Jin army, captured alive and taken to the north?
The less he knew about their whereabouts, the more Yang Yuan became obsessed with these issues, and the more he obsessed with them, the more upset he became.

Therefore, whenever stragglers arrived, especially when the wounded and the dead were carried in, General Yang would immediately run down Jinshan upon hearing the news and go forward to check them one by one.

When he has finished reading it all, he will stand there dejectedly, with a sad look on his face.

The news of the victory had spread quietly in the army. All the soldiers and local officials and landlords who came to reward the troops regarded Yang Yuan as the "Military God" of the Song Dynasty.

This is not the "Wenquxing" descending to the earth, this is clearly the "Wenquxing" and "Wuquxing" possessing each other.

However, despite having made such great military achievements that would go down in history and be remembered through the ages, they did not see the God of War reveal a trace of pride or joy.

They only saw that General Yang, who loved his people like his own children, was extremely sad because of the casualties of his own troops.

The cleanup of the Lingbi battlefield began to spread to the valleys, lakes and rivers...

This is the final cleanup of the battlefield. There won’t be many bodies of wounded soldiers and dead soldiers that can be recovered.

As the sun sets, the breeze from the Tuohe River blows slowly, and the evening songs of Gaixia sound leisurely.

The "God of War" stood on the Golden Mountain in a daze, gazing into the distance.

From the look on Yi Yi's face, is he looking forward to welcoming the wounded soldiers who may have been found?
The soldiers who were extremely excited about the great victory, and the officers and men who were boasting about that night's achievements to their comrades with great joy, all fell silent.

He doesn't love this tremendous achievement, he doesn't like this record of turning the tide and reversing the fate, he just... he really..., I'm crying!
(End of this chapter)