Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 212: The people are safe, fill the ditches

The straight-line distance between the front army camp and Ju County is about sixty miles, but in fact, there are hills and bumpy mountain roads between the two. It takes about eighty miles to walk around the plain on the south side of the hilly area.

The distance is neither close nor far, and in order to maintain combat effectiveness, the Tianping Army will certainly not arrive today. They will recuperate at night and fight with the Wuxing Army that is besieging Ju County tomorrow.

Liu Huai looked at the Tianping Army flag flying away in the distance, and a sense of powerlessness inexplicably arose in his heart.

In this era of extremely inconvenient communication, sending an army is like shooting an arrow. The outcome is almost impossible to determine by the will of the general, but depends entirely on the performance of the generals.

This is the reason why it is said that all skills are learned outside the battlefield.

Just as regularly calibrating the bowstring, honing the archery, and sharpening the arrowhead will help you shoot an arrow accurately and quickly, regularly training your troops will increase your chances of victory at such moments.

But who knows what the results of the Tianping Army's reorganization are? Can these 3,000 elite Tianping soldiers compete head-on with the 2,000 soldiers of the Wuxing Army?
Only God knows.

At this time, you have to believe Xin Qiji.

I have to say that when I was playing the Three Kingdoms game in my previous life, it seemed too normal to have a habit of collecting famous generals, because the appearance of some people's names was enough to make people feel more confident.

Liu Huai looked into the distance from the watchtower, and his thoughts began to wander.

At this time, the battle between the scouts had reached a fever pitch.

Because both the Wuxing Army and the Zhongyi Army wanted to find out the other side's military situation, but also wanted to conceal their own camps, the scouts of both sides tested each other and blocked each other. After the bloody battle, the light cavalry of both sides began to assemble almost at the same time, and started a bloody battle in this narrow passage about five miles wide.

In this kind of battle where victory or defeat was decided solely by personal martial arts on horseback, the scouts of the Loyal Army gradually fell into a disadvantage and were almost pushed to a point one mile north of the front army camp.

Just when Liu Huai was about to order a group of armored cavalry to charge out to carry out a sweep, seven or eight light cavalry came from the north, led by a person holding a red flag.

After seeing this flag, the Jin army scouts became more excited and gathered under the red flag, forming a light cavalry team of about a hundred people, surrounding the seven or eight cavalrymen and moving forward.

At this point, the more than 50 scouts of the Loyal Army were completely unable to gain a foothold and retreated to the edge of the camp.

The Jin army cheered and stopped at a distance of an arrow from the camp, but the Jin cavalry holding the red flag continued to move forward, came to the front army camp, and stopped outside the triple trenches.

"Southern Barbarians!" The armored Jin cavalryman looked around and shouted arrogantly, "I am Heihanfeng, and I have brought you the grace of my general. I know that you southern barbarians are fools and useless, bewitched by the thieves and have come to oppose the Great Jin. As long as you abandon the dark side and hand over the heads of Wei Sheng and Liu Huai, my general will guarantee that the past will be forgiven and everyone will also receive money to protect their lives! If you still dare to resist, the heavenly soldiers will pass by and kill everyone! Do you see this bloody flag? It means surrender or death!"

Heihanfeng shouted loudly, but the loyal soldiers standing behind the wooden fence just looked at him as if he were a fool. If the officer had not given the order, someone would have wanted to kill this guy long ago.

Liu Huai listened for a while on the watchtower. Seeing that it was all repetitive talk, he yawned out of boredom and tilted his head towards the guard beside him.

The personal guard understood, raised a large apricot-yellow flag and waved it vigorously.

The next moment, the corner tower on the northeast side also raised an apricot-yellow flag, and as if taking this as an order, the gate of a camp on the northeast side suddenly opened, and one hundred armored cavalry swarmed out, bypassing the trenches and chevaux de frise from the north side, and suddenly charged towards the one hundred light cavalry.

Hei Hanfeng seemed to be prepared for this situation and immediately turned his horse back.

However, the drawbridge in front of him also dropped with a loud bang, and a neatly-armored general rushed out quickly, holding a spear of astonishing length.

"My grandfather is Ma Jintuo. Today I will use your head as a stepping stone to advancement!"

Hei Hanfeng had just finished hearing the scolding when a spear head came towards him with the autumn wind. At the critical moment, it was his years of horsemanship that saved him. He reflexively lay on the horse's back and narrowly avoided the attack.

"You thief..."

Heihanfeng yelled and cursed, and just as his hand touched the spear shaft, he felt a pain on the back of his neck, and the next moment he fell off his horse with powerless body.

Ma Jintuo secretly felt lucky, as his counterattack was not powerful enough to penetrate the armor. However, the thief named Heihanfeng wanted to show his face, so he tied his neck around his helmet and did not let it go, which made it easy for Ma Jintuo to succeed.

"It's a good market, follow me!"

There were a total of ten armored cavalrymen who rushed out of the gate following Ma Jintuo. They were all from the vicinity of Linyi. They had long known that Ma Jintuo was very skilled in martial arts, but they did not expect that this guy could kill an armored cavalryman as easily as killing a chicken. They immediately became excited and rushed towards the more than one hundred Jin army light cavalrymen with roars.

The Jin army's light cavalry had begun to disperse at this time.

After all, they were just scouts, and they gathered together just to boost the morale of the generals who were trying to persuade them to surrender. However, they never expected that the Loyal Army would be so determined that they would even kill the messengers and even wanted to swallow them whole.

The Jin army scouts, faced with the sudden attack of the Loyalty Army armored cavalry, turned around and retreated without a word. It must be said that they saw the opportunity very quickly. Except for Ma Jintuo, who was relatively close and made some gains, the over a hundred armored cavalry chased for only two miles before calling it a day and retreating back to the camp.

"They are definitely a strong army." Lu You also went up to the watchtower at this time and pointed to the north. "They advance and retreat in moderation, retreating as soon as they are told to. There is no lingering fight. They are well-trained."

Liu Huai nodded: "Indeed, in that case, all the scouts and light cavalry will withdraw. If any enemy troops come to investigate, we can simply send our armored cavalry to disperse them."

Lu You was somewhat puzzled: "Wouldn't that mean the Jin thieves are hiding our army?"

Liu Huai pointed to the river on his left: "Then we can only attack where our army is strong."

Lu You looked in the direction Liu Huai pointed, and saw several small boats on the Yishui River, braving the wind and waves and drifting downstream from the north.

Soon, the boat stopped at the camp's ferry. A white-skinned man, all wet, came to report, "Sir, the Jin bandits have left the camp. There are about ten thousand of them, but most of them are signed troops. The regular Jin bandits are hiding among them and can't be seen, but I counted the large flags and there are about thirty-six of them."

"Where is the fleet of the Golden Thieves Organization?"

"My Lord Commander, it's anchored in a dike on the east bank. It's bunched up in a cluster, and it doesn't look like a warship, but more like a merchant ship carrying supplies."

"Are there any steamships?"

"Of course there is none."

"Investigate further and report back. Also, send a message to He Erlang and He Sanlang to be ready to strike a heavy blow to the golden thieves at any time."

"Yes... I mean, here!"

The fair-skinned man bowed and left.

Lu You, who was standing by, suddenly realized: "He Erlang and He Sanlang, are they He Boqiu's two sons, He Zizhen and He Zizheng?"

Liu Huai nodded. "That's right, they both followed Mr. He San to make a living on the Yishui River. Now they're adults and have long been in charge. When Mr. He surrendered to me, he asked them to be my personal guards. After the recent campaign against the Jin bandits, they've made some contributions and have become captains. This time, I specifically requested the He family's steamer, so I can let them lead our own warships and see if we can do something with the Yishui River."

As he spoke, Liu Huai turned around and looked at Lu You, asking curiously, "Didn't Mr. Lu handle all these documents? Why are you so surprised now?"

Lu You was quite calm. He simply spread his hands and said, "I can't help it. I don't know anything about military affairs. I don't even know the difference between a steamship and an ordinary merchant ship. Since Dalang wants it, after reporting it to the Duke of Wei and he has no objection, I will naturally allocate food, fodder and weapons to them to assist in the battle."

Liu Huaifu smiled again, "Mr. Lu, please don't underestimate yourself. The fact that you can frankly admit that you don't know anything about military affairs already makes you a thousand times better than those scholars and officials in the south. As for how to fight, if you continue to stay in the army and survive for a year, you will eventually learn it."

The two chatted for a few minutes and then looked into the distance to the north, where smoke and dust were rising and people were neighing and horses were neighing.

The queue was in great disorder, but Liu Huai did not show any contempt for them.

Because he had seen that at the front of the queue were ordinary people wearing ragged clothes of various colors. Each of them carried a large basket filled with soil and was driven forward by the Jin army.

It should be said that Hei Hanfeng, who was carrying the bloody flag just now, was the ultimatum given by the Wuxing Army. After these signed troops, with a total number of about 2,000 people, arrived at the battlefield, they did not rest or give warnings. Driven by the regular army, they ran towards the camp of the Zhongyi Army crying loudly.

Lu You pounded his fist against the watchtower's fence, shouting in anger, "What thieves! They're forcing the people to fill the ditches! The Jin thieves are truly a dog that can't change its eating dung. After decades, they still use such despicable methods!"

As he was speaking, the leading soldier carrying a large basket had already rushed to the front of the trench. He poured basket after basket of dirt into the trench without daring to raise his head, and then ran backwards for his life, dragging the empty baskets.

The other signed soldiers followed suit, and hundreds of them poured the soil and rocks in the baskets into a section of the trench, quickly filling it up.

Behind the wooden fence, in the arrow tower, the archers of the Loyal Army on the earthen hill were at a loss. They didn't know what to do for a moment and could only look back frequently to seek orders from the generals.

Liu Huai looked at this scene, sighed and said, "It doesn't matter whether the method is new or old, as long as it works."

Lu You turned back anxiously: "Da Lang, I also know that kindness is not good for commanding an army, but you are a man of wisdom and strategy. Can you think of a way to save them?"

Liu Huai's voice was hoarse, but he responded immediately: "How could there not be deaths? Mr. Lu, if you feel uncomfortable, just treat them as the people of the Jin Kingdom."

Before Lu You could retort, Liu Huai shouted, "Shoot! Force them to retreat!"

(End of this chapter)