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

Chapter 421: Don't Praise the Han Dynasty for Prostitution

On the morning of December 7, the Wusheng army crossed the Shiliang River, arrived at Guishan, and began to set up camp on Guishan.

Liu Huai stood on the temporarily elevated watchtower on the top of Chao County, pinching his chin and sucking his teeth.

Liang Zichu has already summarized the intelligence. Through the investigation in the past few days, he found that the Wusheng Army that came to attack Chao County really only had four regular troops of Meng'an, and the rest were six or seven thousand signed soldiers and civilian laborers. They could not even form a neat line, let alone go into battle.

Liang Zichu also found out something about the situation in Hefei City. There should be three Meng'an soldiers stationed there now, and they were acting as if they were facing a powerful enemy. They quickly reinforced the city defenses and closed the gates.

As a result, Liang Zichu was unable to find out what had happened.

In order to maintain the morale of the army, only people at the level of Xingjun Meng'an knew about the military intelligence that Cheng Min had sent from Liu'an. Perhaps some of his trusted men also knew about it, but ordinary soldiers had no idea.

So much so that Liang Zichu personally captured two lone cavalrymen, but he only said that they were on guard against the attack of the Song army. As for which group of Song troops and which group of rebels they were, he really couldn't find out.

However, even so, Da Huaizhen's decision still surprised Liu Huai and other high-ranking officials of the Jingnan Army.

What is Da Huaizheng doing? Doesn’t he know that I am a good fighter?
Oh, maybe he really doesn't know.

The speed of information transmission in this era is really too slow.

The Jingnan Army knew that they had started from Shandong and fought their way to Lianghuai, and had already defeated several Jin armies.

But the Jin army may only know that there is an army of volunteers from Shandong arriving in Lianghuai, and at most they know that this army has participated in a series of wars in Shandong, but they are confused about other things.

After all, the two sides were separated by a large river, and it was very difficult for the Jin army to capture prisoners.

If Da Huaizhen knew the number of heads in the Jingnan Army, he would probably regard Liu Huai as a figure similar to Cheng Min and would not dare to be so arrogant.

Xin Qiji was also on the watchtower, looking towards Turtle Mountain and frowning: "Da Lang, are we being too cautious?"

Liu Huai's cheek twitched, and he felt that he was making a big deal out of nothing.

If the Wusheng Army really only had these regular troops, then the Jingnan Army could just deploy its troops and fight against the Wusheng Army.

Even with newly recruited soldiers, they are still regular troops with an armor rate of 70%. With a gap of nearly three times in troop strength, can't they defeat the four Meng'an in front of them?
As for those signed troops, to put it bluntly, they might be of some use against ordinary Song troops or peasant armies in the north, but when facing a well-organized and regular army like the Jingnan Army, they would have no other end but to seek their own death.

Any general under the Jingnan Army could guarantee that he could defeat these 6,000 soldiers with only 1,000 troops.

Liu Huai thought about it, then shook his head and said, "We need to let the new recruits see blood. Daily training is one thing, and a real battlefield is another. In addition, we also need to test the effectiveness of the city defenses. Facing four Meng'an right now is one thing, and facing Wanyan Liang's 30,000 troops later is another matter. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to train the troops."

"Then according to the commander-in-chief, how should this war be fought?" He Boqiu asked with a bow.

"Let's defend the city first," Liu Huai said. "When the Jin invaders are exhausted, we'll counterattack with our entire army. Within a day, we'll completely wipe out the invading Jin invaders!"

"One day?"

"One day."

The other generals also nodded to show that one day would not be a problem.

"Who has any objection to the division of city wall defense that was agreed upon at the military meeting yesterday?" Liu Huai asked again.

Seeing the generals shaking their heads, Liu Huai said to He Boqiu, "When we leave the city to counterattack, I hope that General He can hold the city walls firmly and prevent chaos in Chao County."

"Here!"

"Xin Wulang, when the battle comes, you should be my deputy general." Liu Huai looked at Xin Qiji again.

This is also a matter of course, just like Niu Gao was Yue Fei's deputy general. The strongest foreign general from another largest faction in the army would automatically come to this position. It is both a military tradition and a political status.

"Here!"

Xin Qiji also bowed in agreement.

"General, the Jin thieves are right before our eyes. Do you want to go out and harass them?" Wang Shilong, seeing that there was no other words to say, immediately shouted for a fight.

"Go, everyone must go." Liu Huai was unequivocal. He waved his hand and said, "How can we let the Jin thieves live comfortably? Starting with you, Wang Wulang, each army will take turns sending out elite troops to harass. Avoid direct engagements."

Wang Shilong was cheered up and immediately bowed his hands to prepare.

Soon, the city gate opened, the drawbridge was lowered, and Wang Shilong, with two hundred armored cavalry guards, sped away towards Guishan.

While Liu Huai was gazing at the battle going on over there, he tore off a few pieces of paper, wrote and drew on them, rolled them into a ball, threw them into the bowl, and began drawing lots. "Luo Shenyan, you go second."

"Zhang Xiaoyi, you're in the third round."

"Zhang Baiyu, you're in the fourth formation."

"Xin Qiji, you, the fifth, sixth, and seventh formations of the Tianping Army, will arrange yourselves the order of battle."

"Shi Qilang, you are in the eighth formation."

"Lei Ben is still leading the elite vanguard troops in the central army on standby."

"Send a message to Liang Zichu, have them keep an eye on the Jin bandits. Also inform General Yang that if the Jin bandits try to escape, the Dongting Lake navy must cut off their retreat from the Shiliang River!"

After a series of orders were issued, the Jin army entered a period of pain.

The Jingnan Army was originally a mixed group of powerful people, government soldiers, peasant soldiers, and outlaws. It had all kinds of people. Therefore, it was capable of any shady tactics.

Wang Shilong was born into a powerful family in Shuhe. In his early years, he was a man who had connections with both the black and white worlds, and he had no shortage of similar methods.

Two hundred armored cavalrymen rushed to the foot of Guishan Mountain, leaving the Jin army's cavalry and scouts behind, and then started shouting and cursing at the foot of Guishan Mountain.

This cannot be ignored.

Unlike storytelling where one can just hold up the banner of avoiding war, in reality morale is so important that no general can tolerate such provocation from the enemy.

Soon, more than a hundred riders rushed out along the official road between Guishan Mountains and headed straight for Wang Shilong's flag.

However, Wang Shilong had no intention of fighting with the Jin army at all. This place was too close to the main force of the Jin army. If he was entangled, a large number of cavalry would come to encircle and suppress him.

The attacking Jin army general was extremely angry when he saw Wang Shilong turning his horse and leaving. He led his armored cavalry to charge forward quickly, trying to keep Wang Shilong here.

However, just as they pulled the bows and arrows out of the bow bags, the Jin army suddenly discovered that the Han cavalry they were chasing were scattering something behind them while fleeing.

Just as the Jin army general was about to lower his head to take a closer look, his warhorse neighed, stumbled, and threw him out.

"General!"

"It's caltrops! It's fucking caltrops!"

Caltrops are useless unless they are deployed on a large scale. The scale here refers to both the number of caltrops and the number of cavalry.

After all, caltrops only rely on one upright nail to pierce the horse's foot.

However, in order to launch a pursuit, the Jin army deployed a crane-wing formation with light cavalry on both sides and armored cavalry in the center. The armored cavalry of the Jin army deployed a dense attack formation. When they stepped on the caltrops, several horses' hooves were pierced, and the knights on their horseback fell to the ground, causing the entire formation to stagnate.

Several low-ranking officers and bodyguards in the Jin army wanted to protect their own troops, which made the formation even more chaotic.

Wang Shilong naturally would not miss this opportunity. Two hundred armored cavalrymen turned around together, raised their spears and easily defeated the Jin army's light cavalry on both wings. Then they surrounded the Jin army's armored cavalry and started shooting like the Mongols.

Throwing spears and arrows continued to hit the Jin army cavalry. The Jin army knights, who had lost their speed, had to dismount, use their horses as cover, and each took out their bows and arrows to fight back.

However, the purpose of Wang Shilong's trip seemed to be to show off his power. After seeing the Jin cavalry gathering around the marching Mouke to organize a counterattack, he simply waved his flag and went home.

"what!!!"

Looking at the smoke and dust rising from the huge banner with the character "王" on it, the marching Mouke threw the bow and arrow in his hand to the ground in anger, and roared to the sky, regardless of the dust covering his armor rolling on the ground.

Even though the Jin army had armor to protect them, they were not invulnerable. There were still places they could not defend against when facing spears and heavy arrows. After counting the number of people and finding that there were more than 30 casualties, the marching Mouke roared in anger again.

The two marching Moukes who came to support looked at each other, both with sad expressions on their faces.

Watching this scene from afar, He Boqiu couldn't help but sneer. "As the Art of War says: Victorious troops win first and then seek battle, while defeated troops fight first and then seek victory. Our Jingnan Army was certain of victory during the initial planning phase before engaging in battle. As for the Wusheng Army, they came to Chao County without even considering how the war would unfold, hoping to seize the opportunity at the last moment. How could they not be defeated?"

Liu Huai shook his head and smiled, "That's not true. War is a dangerous time, so how can we be completely confident? Even a 30% chance is enough to gamble. We'll have to adapt to the situation and respond accordingly. The outcome is still uncertain. Who knows if Da Huaizhen is truly a rare hero, and if the Wusheng Army under his command are all brave men, and can they really defeat our army head-on?"

He Boqiu also laughed: "Although it was said in private, it came out of your mouth and entered my ears, but the commander-in-chief should not boost the morale of others and destroy his own prestige."

"That makes sense!" Liu Huai saw Wang Shilong coming back in triumph and waved his hand from the watchtower: "He's returned victorious, so we should beat the drums to cheer him on!"

(End of this chapter)