On the occasion of rebirth Zhou Sui

Chapter 407 Camp Roaring at Night

The Sui army attacking the mountain in the south had retreated. They were unaware of the rebellion that broke out in the Sui camp north of Gaobi Ridge. They just saw that Yang Su did not launch an attack together as agreed, and noticed that the situation had changed, so they did not continue the night battle.

Li Jing was quite puzzled by this. When he found Mai Tiezhang, he realized that there had been a civil strife in the Sui army in the north of Lingbei.

This sudden change also gave them hope.

Not only Mai Tiezhang, but also Li Jing and the less than 700 remaining defenders on Gaobi Ridge were also inspired:

Yes, we are indeed at the end of our rope, but how much better can the Sui army at the foot of the mountain be? Their situation is even worse than ours, otherwise how could a mutiny break out?

That night, Yang Su did not follow the plan and continued to force the soldiers to fight at night and attack the mountain.

He asked the Sui army to rest for a while and have a good sleep. When things calmed down tomorrow, it would not be too late to fight again.

What Yang Su didn't expect was that a bigger riot broke out at night.

Due to Yang Su's brutal methods of running the army, the soldiers always had the intention of death when fighting.

Although this behavior can make the soldiers under his command fight desperately, it also puts them in a high-pressure state of high mental stress for a long time.

In the past, whether it was beheading the soldiers who retreated without authorization, or a 3,000-strong mountain attacking force that mutinied and were all executed, as well as the huge casualties caused by the attack on Gaobiling these days, including the current situation of not having enough to eat.

Under the combined effect of these factors, the Sui army officers and soldiers had reached the critical point of collapse.

A camp roar broke out in the early morning of the 30th day of the first lunar month in the first year of Daye (AD 605).

Camp roar, also known as camp bombing and camp shock, is an abnormal behavior in which all soldiers act blindly without receiving any instructions when the army is sleeping at night.

In modern times, due to greater attention to humanistic care for soldiers, the phenomenon of camp roaring has completely disappeared, but the last large-scale camp roaring in the world also came from China.

The father of the star Qin and Han Dynasty, the famous flying general Sun Yuanliang, led the 15th Corps to break through during the Battle of Huaihai.

During the breakout, the 80,000-strong army (some say 40,000) were basically unscathed, but after the breakout, only 400 men were left. This was not due to how fierce the battle was.

But during the breakout process, the soldiers suffered a mental breakdown and suddenly killed each other at night. Eighty thousand people disappeared overnight, and only 400 people survived.

The mental oppression faced by the Sui Army today is far greater than that of the 15th Corps.

After all, Sun Yuanliang was only capable of raping patriotic female students on the front line of the Anti-Japanese War, but Yang Su could kill hundreds or thousands of people.

In the early morning, in the Sui army's camp, I don't know which unit was the first to scream, completely detonating the hysterical and crazy atmosphere among the Sui army soldiers.

Countless people were screaming and shouting in the middle of the night. Military discipline could no longer restrain them. They picked up weapons and instinctively waved them at everyone around them.

This camp bombing was not something that could be quelled by just letting the soldiers kill each other like Zhou Yafu, the famous general of the Western Han Dynasty.

More than 100,000 Sui troops were so furious that they had no reason to speak anymore.

Yang Su had been awakened long ago. No matter how much he shouted in an attempt to bring the soldiers back to their senses, it was all in vain. Instead, his position was exposed and attracted a large number of soldiers to pursue him.

There is no doubt that the mentally broken soldiers clearly remembered their resentment towards Yang Su.

Yang Su didn't dare to stay in Lingbei anymore, so he quickly took his personal guards, who held torches and fled along the Huoshan Trail.

However, Yu Zhongwen, Yang Yichen and other generals could not wake up the Sui soldiers who had fallen completely into madness, and they also fled into the Huoshan Trail.

There were shouts, screams, and wails from the bottom of the mountain all night long.

Li Jing and Mai Tiezhang were also frightened at first, thinking that the Sui army was suddenly attacking again. It was not until they found the Sui army camp Xiao with the help of firelight and moonlight.

But Li Jing, Mai Tiezhang and others did not dare to take the opportunity to kill down the mountain. At the foot of the mountain were more than 100,000 crazy Sui troops. With less than 700 defenders, they rushed down Gaobiling, which was not enough to fill the teeth of those madmen.

After a night of fighting, dawn came again.

When Cui Che learned the news, he led his army through the Mouseque Valley. When he arrived, he saw corpses everywhere under the high cliffs. Of the more than 100,000 soldiers, only a few thousand Sui soldiers were left sitting dumbfounded in the sea of ​​blood among the mountains of corpses.

Except for generals such as Yang Su and their personal guards, not all the Sui troops died at the foot of Gaobi Ridge. Many others fled through the Thousand Miles of Tongjun River.

But Cui Che knew that without supplies, those people would be the same as dead.

In particular, Tongjunchuan is a remote mountain road that can be walked when Shuqiao Valley is impassable.

There was no food, and we had to take detours on the mountain roads. It was not that easy to survive.

The thousands of surviving Sui troops seemed to have been drained of their souls after a brutal killing of each other, and they were at the mercy of the Yan army in a decadent manner.

Fortunately, Cui Che did not make things difficult for these people, but sent people to take them to Xihe County for temporary resettlement.

Compared with these Sui troops, the soldiers who defended Gaobiling deserved Cui Che's attention more.

When Cui Che climbed up to Gaobiling and saw the seven hundred soldiers covered with bruises, he said with emotion in his skilled Khitan language:

"It was you who captured Hedong for me. I will never forget your contribution. There will be a heavy reward after the war!"

"I will take care of the orphans of the fallen soldiers, and all the compensation they deserve will be given to their families!"

With Cui Che's promise, the seven hundred defenders all felt that their hard work had been in vain. They shouted long live the king and embraced each other enthusiastically, feeling the joy of surviving the disaster.

And Yang Su, who fled to the south of Gaobiling via the Huoshan Trail, also felt deeply that he had narrowly escaped death.

Since in order to support the offensive in the south, 30,000 soldiers had arrived to the south of Gaobiling via the Huoshan Trail, Yang Su quickly came to the camp and took over the command.

Duan Wenzhen, the veteran general who had previously commanded the Sui army in the south, advised:

"Marshal, the morale of the army is now at a loss, and the army in the south is exhausted from attacking the mountains for days.

"Cui Che is recuperating his energy outside the Ratqueen Valley. If he goes south via Gaobi Mountain, how can we resist him!

"Please also ask the marshal to return to Kansai and protect these tens of thousands of elite soldiers for the saint. Don't try to gain momentum for a while."

In fact, without Duan Wenzhen's persuasion, Yang Su knew that his defeat was irreversible.

The news about the howling camp in the north has spread. He only has less than 40,000 frightened soldiers at hand. How can he compete with Cui Che.

I can't stay here in Hedong.

Fortunately, there was no shortage of food in the southern camp. Yang Su immediately led the army southward, meeting along the way the sergeants who had been sent to various places to besiege the city.

When they left Hedong via Puban, they actually had 60,000 men under their command.

Of course, this is all for later.

When Cui Che heard that Yang Su had evacuated, he did not continue the pursuit, but was busy taking over the cities in the southeast of Henan.

Some cities were captured by Yang Su and then abandoned when he retreated, while some cities are still held by Yang Liang's troops to this day.

(End of chapter)