latelenovela Chapter 449 The Battle of Qiuyu Mountain (1)
Chapter 449 The Battle of Qiuyu Mountain (1)
Yan Guang agreed with Zhu Dadian's statement, saying, "Lord Zhu is right. The bandits can be quite powerful in Shaanxi and Henan, and even after a defeat, they can still rally new refugees to rise again. But this doesn't work in Jiangnan. Every defeat is like cutting off flesh, making it impossible to replenish our forces. In this battle, we have 5,000 against 50,000, one against ten. We don't need to annihilate them in one battle; just repelling them is a victory. Once the bandits retreat, we will follow them. If they stop, we will continue to fight; if they stop fighting, we will keep following them, pressing them step by step, not giving them a chance to breathe. It's like a person being constantly bled out; we will drag them down until the two traitors, Gao and Zhang, die."
In fact, this is not just a strategy for this battle, but a comprehensive plan to deal with the bandits. In other words, it is to confront the bandits in a safe way, repel them, and then keep a close watch on them. The bandit army has a loose and arbitrary organizational structure, and maintaining a high-pressure and pressing posture will make them nervous until they collapse.
Zhu Dadian praised, "This Mr. Yan has a very accurate eye. The bandits have no strict military discipline. They will scatter when forced and collapse when scattered. If we can maintain a close pursuit after defeating them, we may be able to completely crush these two notorious bandits in Shaanxi and Henan and become famous throughout the world."
That being said, Zhu Dadian knew that it was easier said than done. His troops had defeated various rebel armies more than once, but there were very few successful examples of pursuing and completely annihilating them in one fell swoop. In his view, simply holding his ground against a numerically superior enemy in the open field was already quite an achievement. The idea of completely crushing the Gao and Zhang bandits was merely a wishful thinking.
A newly promoted young staff officer raised a question: "Chief of Staff Yan, Lord Zhu, I heard that the bandits have cavalry. No matter how fast we go, can two legs catch up with four? What's the point of talking about a relentless pursuit?"
These young staff officers were selected by Yan Guang from junior officers at the battalion and company levels. They possessed a certain level of education and a broad perspective, as well as relatively rich practical experience. This ensured that they were neither mere brutes nor armchair strategists like Zhao Kuo who only knew how to talk the talk. However, to become a qualified staff officer as required by Liu Ye, they still needed continuous training, and dealing with the bandits was a valuable opportunity for that.
Zhu Dadian chuckled to himself, thinking, "Youth is indeed a blessing; a newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger." He wasn't thinking about how to repel the bandit army yet, but only about how to pursue them after winning the battle. He explained, "Young brother, it's true that the bandits have cavalry, but out of 50,000 troops, less than 10,000 are on horseback. At least 80% of them are on foot, and the army also has the elderly, weak, women, and children accompanying them. How can they possibly move quickly?"
Several young staff officers laughed happily upon hearing this. The staff officer who asked the question said, "That's good. If it comes to physical strength and discipline, Qionghai Army is not afraid of anyone."
The general strategy was thus decided, and the specifics of how to fight were left to Xu Yifan, the military commander of the Second Regiment.
Xu Yifan had already observed the surrounding terrain and had a plan in mind.
After crossing the river, he hired a local hunter as a guide. The hunter explained that the Qionghai Army was located in a hilly area called Qiliqiao. There used to be a village nearby, but the bandits' stragglers slaughtered it while passing through, and the surrounding area was deserted for dozens of miles. According to the scouts' route, this was a crucial point of passage for the bandits: to the south lay the Yangtze River, and to the north stretched a vast, dense forest called Laoshan for nearly a hundred miles. Unless they changed course and retreated a hundred miles, bypassing Laoshan before heading west from Chuzhou, they would have to defeat the Qionghai Army to continue. However, this detour to Chuzhou would likely lead to a direct confrontation with Hong Chengchou's army, which was advancing eastward. It's believed that both Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong would choose the relatively unknown Qionghai Army, this "easy target," rather than the renowned Hong Chengchou and his valiant general Cao Wenzhao.
In other words, a battle between the two armies in the narrow strip of land less than ten miles wide between Laoshan and the Yangtze River was inevitable.
With no choice in the battlefield and no time to retreat, Xu Yifan decided to set up defenses on the spot and await the arrival of the bandit army. He placed Liu Ye and his group of leaders and staff, including quasi-civilian personnel, on a small hill called Qiuyu Mountain, while the entire regiment was positioned at the foot of Qiuyu Mountain, with heavy artillery on the mountainside and light artillery in formation.
After the defenses were completed, the Qionghai Army stood ready, awaiting the arrival of the bandit army.
Meanwhile, the allied forces of Gao and Zhang were advancing slowly. Their plundering had yielded a considerable harvest, with wagons laden with gold, silver, and silk stretching for miles, severely slowing their march. Their original plan to reach Wujiang Town near Hezhou Prefecture and set up camp before nightfall was ruined.
Zhang Xianzhong wasn't in a hurry. As long as he didn't run into Hong Chengchou's army, it didn't matter whether it was sooner or later. He rode his horse, a delicate woman nestled in his arms, one hand holding the reins, the other caressing her body. The woman was thinly dressed and resisted, but dared not fight back or cry, and could only let him do as he pleased.
A young general standing nearby chuckled, “Godfather, these daughters of officials from Jiangnan have such delicate skin and tender flesh; they must have a unique charm compared to the women of Mizhi, right?”
Zhang Xianzhong chuckled and said, "My son is right. Although the women of Mizhi are beautiful, none of them are as soft and smooth as the women of Jiangnan, who seem to be made of water. Especially that alluring yet coy charm, which women from Shaanxi simply don't have..."
This young general was Sun Kewang, one of Zhang Xianzhong's four adopted sons. He glanced at the young woman who was about to cry. She was clearly full of sorrow, so where was the coy refusal? But he naturally wouldn't spoil his adoptive father's mood, and repeatedly agreed.
Under the banner bearing the character "闯" (Chuang, meaning to break through) on the other side of the army, Gao Yingxiang frowned and asked those around him, "Have the scouts we sent out reported anything?"
"Reporting to the King of Chuang, they should have returned by now, but there is not a single one in sight."
Something was wrong. Gao Yingxiang stared ahead, a sense of foreboding creeping into his heart.
He instructed his subordinates: "Go and invite the Eighth Prince over, and tell him that there is something important to discuss."
A soldier rode up to Zhang Xianzhong and said respectfully, "The King of Chuang invites the Eighth Prince to come over; he has important matters to discuss."
Disappointed, Zhang Xianzhong sat up straight, picked up the woman in his arms, and threw her towards Sun Kewang. Sun Kewang quickly reached out to catch her and took the opportunity to touch her a few times.
"Chuang Wang is just prone to making a fuss. We've already avoided that old scoundrel Hong Chengchou by traveling along the riverbank, and the journey has been peaceful. So why would we need to discuss anything important?"
Despite his complaints, Zhang Xianzhong did not delay and rode his horse to Gao Yingxiang's side.
Gao Yingxiang didn't waste any words and told him directly, "The scouts I sent out report back every hour, and it's been almost two hours now, and not a single one has returned. Something's fishy. Let's discuss this, so that if something really happens, we won't be caught off guard."