Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 203, Yongding River Campaign (II)
All the escape routes around Huleleyong were blocked, leaving only one route for him to escape.

As he fled along this road, Hu Leleyong vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

Along the way, except for this one road, all other roads were blocked and there was no way to escape.

Such a coincidence obviously means there is something wrong.

But he couldn't stop there.

Because once he stopped, he would lose all chances of survival.

It was impossible for him to abandon his troops and escape alone.

Troops and horses are the foundation of his life. Without them, who would recognize him as the leader?

Hu Leleyong had no choice but to escape along the route planned by Zhai Xun.

During this period, Hu Leleyong also tried to struggle.

He led his troops to attack Wei Xing's position.

After all, Wei Xing's troops had suffered heavy losses before, and it was considered a weak point in the encirclement.

But Zhai Xun had already anticipated Hu Leileyong's idea.

He asked Niu Jin and Ma Laohei to support Wei Xing and completely destroy Huleleyong's breakout plan.

Hu Leleyong could only continue to escape along the route planned by Zhai Xun.

That is, they fled along the source of the Yongding River to the Fangshan area in the northwest.

Wei Xing, Ma Laohei, Niu Jin, Zhang Yuan and others formed a horizontal V-shaped encirclement. The two tips of the V were Wei Xing and Zhang Yuan, and the gap was facing the direction of Fangshan.

Wei Xing and Zhang Yuan continued to compress the V-shaped angle, making Huleleyong's living space inside it narrower and narrower. In order to avoid being destroyed, Huleleyong could only desperately flee to the Fangshan area.

On the other side, the two grassland tribes in the capital quickly came to support under the order of Kah Khan.

When they arrived near the encirclement, they discovered Huleleyong's current situation.

The Han people formed a V-shaped encirclement, and Huleleyong was at the center of the V at this time, being beaten terribly by the Han people.

But such an encirclement also has disadvantages.

That is, once there is support from outside, they can unite with the surrounded troops inside and launch counter-encirclement.

After discovering this situation, the grassland reinforcements immediately sent people to report to the capital, and at the same time contacted Huleleyong's troops, demanding that Huleleyong stop escaping and assist the grassland reinforcements in counter-encircling Zhang Yuan's naval forces.

Hu Leleyong had no other choice but to agree.

The battle began quickly.

Around the Yongding River area, a fierce battle broke out between the grassland reinforcements and Zhang Yuan's navy.

Hu Leleyong, who had been fleeing, stopped as planned, joined forces with reinforcements outside to launch a counter-encirclement, and launched an attack on Zhang Yuan from another side.

For a time, Zhang Yuan was attacked from all sides and was under tremendous pressure.

Fortunately, this was Zhai Xun’s plan, and bearing pressure was part of Zhang Yuan’s mission, so he was not too panicked.

In order to allow Zhang Yuan to withstand the pressure, Fang Yong gave Zhang Yuan a large amount of weapons and equipment, making his army far more elite than others.

Secondly, Fang Yong also dispatched an additional 20,000 elite Huaiyin troops to Zhang Yuan, which, together with Zhang Yuan's original 30,000 naval forces, totaled 50,000 people.

These soldiers are all veterans of the Huaiyin Army. There is not much difference between the navy and the army in the Huaibei region. When they get on the ship, they are the navy, and when they get off the ship, they are the army. The arms of these 50,000 people can be switched at any time.

The opponents Zhang Yuan faced were more than 30,000 cavalry reinforcements from the grassland and more than 20,000 remnants of Huleleyong's army.

Judging from the number of people, the gap between the two sides is not very big.

However, the people of the grassland are basically cavalry. If one person and one horse are added together, they are considered two units. They are definitely more powerful than an ordinary soldier. This is an indisputable fact.

Fortunately, the combat effectiveness of the Huleileyong tribe has been greatly reduced.

Generally speaking, when an army is fighting, if it loses 10% of its troops, it is on the verge of defeat, and if it loses 20%, it is considered a major defeat. Now, more than 30% of Huleleyong's troops have been lost, and the remaining soldiers have long lost their morale, and their combat effectiveness is far lower than before. This has reduced Zhang Yuan's pressure a lot.

On the other side, Wei Xing was also attacking the Huleleyong tribe.

Hu Leleyong could only grit his teeth and hold on. Now it depended on who could hold on longer.

If Zhang Yuan was defeated first, he could break out of the encirclement and join the grassland reinforcements. If he couldn't hold on first, he could only continue to flee to the northwest of the gap, and by then, the situation would probably not be very good.

After all, the Han people deliberately left this way out for themselves, so there must be some conspiracy behind it.

In this way, the two sides fought.

The flames of war spread along one side of the V-shaped encirclement.

The most important positions in this battle line are the three tips of the V shape.

Since this V-shaped enclosure is horizontal,
That is it:＞

Among the three tips, one is located in Fang Yong's area and will not be attacked. This is the area where Wei Xing is located.

The other two points were both under the responsibility of Zhang Yuan, and they became the key to victory or defeat on the battlefield.

The forward point is located at the end of Daxing. Strictly speaking, it has penetrated deep into the enemy's hinterland. Fortunately, Fang Yong controlled the waterway and dared to transport troops here.

There are three villages here, namely Hongmen Village, Xinmen Village and Zhaodong Village.

These were originally three ordinary villages, but now they have become the key to victory or defeat on the battlefield.

Liang Lie garrisoned these three villages with 10,000 elite soldiers.

The village had long been deserted, so there was nothing to worry about.

The most difficult thing about this location is that it has no strategic location to defend, so the battle that will follow is bound to be extremely brutal.

The three villages were arranged in the shape of a Chinese character "品". The topmost village, Hongmen, was located slightly higher in terrain, so Liang Lie focused his artillery deployment in Hongmen Village and arranged major defensive fortifications around it.

He ordered his soldiers to clear the surrounding land, set up a large number of horse traps, dig traps, and place poisonous stings!

At the same time, in Xinmen Village and Zhaodong Village, which were located in low-lying areas, Liang Lie opened the nearby Feng River and poured the water from the Feng River into the two villages.

Because the land of the two villages was dug up by Liang Lie and filled with water, the two villages immediately turned into a quagmire. There was a pit hidden under the mud every two steps, which had a great blocking effect on the grassland people's cavalry.

However, in this case, when the war is over, the land of these two villages will basically be unusable.

There is nothing we can do about this.

In order for the war to go smoothly, compensation can only be made afterwards.

In addition to this, Liang Lie has made many other arrangements.

A large part of them come from the traps he invented when he was a hunter to catch prey for survival.

However, the grassland people did not give Liang Lie a chance to perform.

Soon a large group of grassland cavalry rushed over.

Both sides have reasons not to fail.

The battle broke out instantly.

After passing through the swamp, a large number of grassland soldiers were defeated in an instant.

But there were also grassland soldiers rushing from other directions.

"Fire, fire!"

Liang Lie ordered.

The soldiers loaded their cannons and fired the pellets, turning a row of steppe cavalry into a pulp.

But more soldiers continued to rush over.

Some fell into horse traps, and one, two, and a third continued to charge by stepping on the bodies of their companions.

"Projection!"

The grassland soldiers drew their bows and shot arrows.

Countless arrows flew out, and even if Liang Lie ordered the Huaiyin army to use shields for defense in time, it would be difficult to defend completely.

Many Huaiyin troops suffered casualties.

(End of this chapter)