Qin Official

Spark more torches.

After distributing weapons and motivating everyone, the first thing Heifu did was not to rush forward rashly. Instead, he asked everyone to take out all the torches hidden in the arsenal. He also asked Wu Chen and others to hold machetes, chop pine trees, and stand at the top. Wrap it in a rag soaked in rosin to support the fire, which will keep the torch burning for a while.

Then, they formed the army into three formations and set off one by one. They raised the pole as a flag and each person had a torch. They deliberately lengthened the marching team. From a distance, it looked like a sea of ​​fire. How could it look like there were only 20,000 people? There is a scale of 40,000 to 50,000!

He not only deceives his enemies, he also deceives his own people.

The general said that Lingnan's 100,000 troops are behind us, and reinforcements will arrive at dawn! We are not fighting alone!

Messengers kept going back and forth to spread the good news. The 20,000 soldiers of the Southern Expedition, who were originally fighting against the elite and a little timid, became energetic. Even though the formation was not in order, following the general's flag, they still mustered up their courage and began to follow the 3,000 short soldiers in the center. Wei, step forward.

It was already the fifth watch, and there was still some time before sunrise. The soldiers had to maintain their formation as much as possible in the weak light and avoid ravines and canals, so they could not go very fast. It was several miles away from the Yellow Crane Tower to the dock. They walked through the wilderness where they usually worked in the fields and crossed the muddy paths, getting closer and closer to the enemy.

The enemy's army was probably no less than 8,000 strong. After arranging their formation, they went to the riverside and hesitated for a whole hour. Do you want to wait for work?

Heifu could see thousands of torches burning quietly in the direction of the dock, but he still didn't take a step forward.

The two hours from when the cavalry were dispatched to gather skirmishers to when weapons were distributed at Huanghe Mountain were their most vulnerable moments. If the Qin general on the opposite side made a ruthless attack and had people kill them under the cover of night, they might be able to gather them with great difficulty. The 20,000 people were scattered again like birds and beasts.

He looked at the troops around him that looked like tens of thousands of troops, and understood in his heart: I know the enemy, but the enemy doesn't know me. They are afraid of attacking rashly and being surrounded, so they are timid.

It is said in the Art of War that managing chaos depends on numbers; courage and cowardice depend on momentum; strength and weakness depend on form.

The war was fought not only with formations to control chaos, but also with morale and courage. Now, because of the fire, our side's desire for survival was aroused, and we went to kill them all at once. On the other side, everyone from the commander to the soldiers were told, The First Emperor has been killed and the order has been followed. The slogan Jing Nan is difficult to quell the rebellion made me a little panicked. There were no high walls or deep ravines at the dock, so there was still a chance of winning.

But at this moment, the scouts from the front came to report that there were new changes at the dock!

General, we ventured closer, but we saw that the enemy's torches were all tied to wooden poles and motionless, but they quietly evacuated and boarded the ship! There are only two to three thousand people left in the place!

Are you going to run away?

Apart from the pier, there was no good landing place around. The enemy could not be stupid enough to split their troops and go around the rear. Hei Fu couldn't laugh or cry. He originally just wanted to bluff, boost his own morale, and make the enemy suspicious. Could he have gone too far and frightened them into fear? beated?

This is different from Heifu's expectation. The Wuchang Camp army must be annihilated! Otherwise, the next plan will be completely disrupted. Even if his back-up plan works and the army successfully crosses the river, after landing in Anlu, in addition to Feng Jing, there will be thousands more enemies, which will make it difficult to rescue the Anlu folks. The difficulty of the task doubled.

Let the whole army speed up!

Heifu didn't care about anything else and beat the war drums on the command car vigorously. Countless horns joined the ensemble, and bundles of torches exuding the smell of pine resin passed him by with rustling footsteps, heading straight to the dock!

But on the battlefield, accidents happen all the time, especially to an army that has just been recruited. It is not surprising that anything happens.

Everyone had just speeded up and arrived a mile away from the pier. They could already see clearly that the torches at the pier were gradually extinguished and became fewer and fewer. Almost all the Qin soldiers and guards had boarded the ships coming from Xiakou and were about to leave the shore. go.

Don't let it escape intact!

Just as he was about to regroup and launch an attack, Heifu discovered that something happened to his right wing...

A group of thousands of torches, without Heifu's instructions, suddenly broke away from the team and violently headed east!

When the scout who was ordered to supervise the battle on the right wing came to report, his face was pale: General, there are three to four thousand people on the right wing, and they escaped before the battle!

…

The three to four thousand people who escaped were soldiers from Huainan who were instigated by Ge Ying from Fuli.

As early as a few months ago, Ge Ying, who had served for four full years, had been encouraging the township party members to escape with him. However, they were frightened by the Qin army's laws and orders, and no one except a few dared to follow them.

But tonight's fire burned away everyone's last hopes and concerns, and Ge Ying's proposal suddenly became tempting.

Although when Hei Fu sent out his cavalry to gather everyone, they blindly followed the crowd to Huanghe Mountain and picked up weapons, but when they got closer to the dock and saw that there were many torches there, they felt guilty in their hearts. …

We haven't trained for a long time. Even if we wear armor and fight those well-trained Guanzhong soldiers, even if we kill a thousand enemies, we will lose eight hundred. Will I die from this?

With this thought, his legs seemed to be rusty and his steps were no longer so agile.

And Ge Ying had no intention of working for that Marquis Wu Zhong. He kept encouraging him from the right wing:

No matter how nice this general is, he is also a Qin general after all. Two Qin armies are fighting, but we, the Chu people, are asked to fill in the ravines. Why bother?

And the so-called 100,000-strong army. If it really exists, why not just pull it out?

Rather than die in vain here, it is better to leave! Listen to me, hide in the lake in the east, and then find a way to return to Huainan!

The closer they got to the battle, the more timid they became. About three to four hundred people listened to Ge Ying's words. They were all located in the middle of the array and at the back. They couldn't see the situation at the dock. As soon as the army stopped, they heard Ge Ying shouting. cried out:

run!

Led by Ge Ying, the three to four hundred people immediately ran away. Many people fell down and were trampled under their feet, but they struggled to get up and limped to follow.

The neighboring township party member Pao Ze stared at them dumbfounded, and after a slight hesitation, he actually joined the fleeing team...

General? The imperial court? honor? promise? It's not as good as a bag of bad wine to him, at least the bad wine can temporarily drown their fears.

After all, Heifu's direct descendants only have 3,000 people, and most of them are in the central army. Wu Chen and others of the military governor were unable to stop him. In just half a moment, a total of 3,000 to 4,000 people fled from the right wing. Covered by darkness, running everywhere.

They don't know where they are going, whether to go home or to live in exile. They just want to stay away from this bloody battlefield!

…

This scene of escaping from the battle not only caught Hei Fu off guard, Yang Xiong and others who had boarded the ship and were preparing to leave the shore also saw this strange thing from a distance.

Xin Yi cheered up and pointed at the thousands of torches that were separated from the sea of ​​fire and immediately extinguished: General Yang, could it be that something happened to the rebels?

But Yang Xiong shook his head: I'm afraid this is still a trick of Marquis Wu Zhong. When he saw us evacuating, he knew he couldn't stop us, so he deliberately made people flee and pretended to be in chaos in the army, so as to lure us ashore to fight again!

From the time he evacuated Wuchang Camp and arrived at the dock, Yang Xiong had no intention of fighting head-on with the rebels since he found out that the enemy was indeed using the banner of Wuzhonghou.

Faced with the question from Xiakou Sima, Yang Xiong said plausibly: Do you know how many troops there are on the opposite side? What if in addition to the three to five thousand that the scouts saw, there are ten thousand, twenty thousand, or even one hundred thousand?

Marquis Wuzhong came back from the dead and appeared in Wuchang with an army in a grand manner. This frightened Yang Xiong and felt that something must have happened in the south. The worst-case scenario was that General Li You might have been killed and the entire Changsha County had fallen... …

He has full control over his own side's reality, but Yang Xiong can't even find out how many enemies there are.

Reason told him that this kind of battle should not be fought!

In addition to the unclear situation, Yang Xiong actually also had a deep fear of Hei Fu in his heart.

When the world is in conflict, people often say that Qi Jian Po Mu is the best at using troops. Now that all four generals have passed away, there are only two people in the world who are the best at using troops, except for Generals Wang Ben and Feng Wuze, who are always strong.

Li, Wei!

General White Horse and General Black Dog!

This title was built on solid military exploits. Although Li Xin had suffered a major defeat in his early years and lost seven captains. However, he learned his shame and became brave. Whether he was destroying the Yan Dynasty or conquering the Xiongnu, he showed his style. Later, he destroyed the Yueshi, swept the Western Regions, and shocked the northwest, making him a first-class general.

And Heifu was not bad either. He was famous before the unification. After the unification, he and Li Xin attacked the Xiongnu, quelled the rebellion in Zhutian, attacked Canghai, and acted alone in the south, whether it was capturing Fujian and Yue, conquering Nanyue, and defeating Ou Luo, They all finished in one go and tidied up the mess left by Old Tu.

In contrast, Meng Tian's reputation is slightly inferior to the two because of the peace in northern Xinjiang and not many opportunities for fighting.

Yang Xiong pointed at himself, Xin Yi, and Xiakou Sima: If it is really Wu Zhonghou who personally leads the army, do you think you can defeat him?

The two of them were speechless. After saying this, they really didn't feel confident.

Yang Xiong sighed: They are loudly claiming that His Majesty has died, but they are following the imperial edict to appease Nan. Our soldiers are already confused. If we fight them decisively, they are playing into the hands of Marquis Wu Zhong. It is better to leave!

Xin Yi and Xiakou Sima were almost convinced, but they still had the last bit of hesitation.

With the loss of Wuchang, all the arsenal and soldiers were captured by the rebels, and another 30,000 people were lost. How should we explain to General Feng?

Those thirty thousand people are rebels, not Qin soldiers.

Yang Xiong smiled and said: I burned at least three to five thousand rebels to death in one fire, which can be considered as beheading three to five thousand. I also specially ordered people to set fire to the warehouse and burn hundreds of thousands of stones of grain to ashes so that they would not become enemies. .”

He pointed at the sea of ​​​​fire coming towards the shore: What's more, we are doing this for the overall situation. No matter how many people Wu Zhonghou brings north, I have already guessed his next move!

Anlu! He must have wanted to seize the boat and cross the river to Anlu!

Anlu is Heifu's home base. There are his mother and brother, as well as 50,000 township party members who are about to be moved to Guanzhong...

At this time, the fifth watch was over, and there was a faint light on the horizon. The rebels arrived panting at the riverside, but there were no boards here, and even the long pier was burned down under Yang Xiong's order! I can only look at the river and sigh!

Yang Xiong looked at the big flag of Marquis Wu Zhong and smiled: As long as we retreat completely, join General Feng and his son, and unite 40,000 people, wait for work in leisure, and then use Anlu as hostage to disrupt their military morale.

By then, if the rebels advance, they will be defeated. If they don't advance, their morale will be low, they will have no food, and they will fall apart!

Then, just as Yang Xiong said the words fall apart, a sharp warning sounded on the ship!

We've hit it, hold on tight!

There was a violent shaking, as if a giant river beast hit the side of the ship. Yang Xiong quickly hugged the mast, but his head still hit it, causing the skin to bleed, and the unlucky Xin Yi fell to the ground!

The shaking gradually stopped, and with noisy exclamations, Yang Xiong covered his head and stood up to take a look. It was on the left side of the tall ship that a stern hit the ship hard because it was going down the river very fast. The sharp collision angle covered with copper has broken the ship's plank and destroyed the oar hole, and the river water is pouring into it...

There was a plain white flag on the boat, which was dazzling and ominous. What's even more shocking is that there are dozens of ships approaching in the upper reaches of the river, some big and small, some with sterns and some with empty grain ships, and some even use paddle wheels. As the sailors step on them, the wooden paddle wheels fly. Turning around, it was breaking through the morning mist and rushing towards them!

The officers and soldiers of the Qin army who were about to retreat were all shocked, but the people on the shore burst into violent cheers!

We arrived just in time. Heifu secretly wiped his cold sweat. Thousands of people had just escaped from the battle, but he was frightened.

But he still pretended to be confident, pointing at the ships that kept appearing, as if the boats and oars were disappearing into ashes while talking and laughing.

Look, my general's '100,000' army has arrived!

…

ps: Chapter 2 is at night