When the Seventh Army of Huaxia and Wanyan Zonghan lit a fire to the west of the Hanzhong Plain, the beacons of the Sword Garret also burned fiercely for a few days.
Qu Zhengyan did not complete his plan to seize the Sword Garret within three days as scheduled.
Faced with Ba Li Su, who was determined to defend his position to the death, Qu Zhengyan, who did not have an advantage in terms of military strength, did not make fast progress up the mountain. Historically speaking, it was already a unique record to be able to break through the pass in front and slowly advance. In the subsequent battles, as the attacking side, the Huaxia army always maintained a certain advantage. Compared to the current Sword Garret's military strength and firearms, it was almost a miracle.
In a situation where the miniaturization of the iron cannons had not achieved a decisive breakthrough, it was difficult for the troops led by Qu Zhengyan to drag out a large number of cannons from the narrow southwest mountain path to attack. The dozens of rockets that were brought out could certainly give them a certain advantage in a long-distance attack, but a small number could not determine the direction of the entire battle.
Ba Li Su scattered cannons all over the mountain ridge. Once they were in a disadvantageous position, he would ignite the gunpowder barrels and blow up the iron cannons. Such a resolute resistance made it difficult for the Huaxia army to seize the cannons and attack up the mountain smoothly.
Apart from the few rockets "Dijiang", Qu Zhengyan's only advantage was that his troops were the elites of the elites. Once they entered a chaotic battle, they could suppress the enemy's troops. But even so, the Jin soldiers, who had already realized that it would be difficult to go home and that surrendering would not end well, did not easily abandon their weapons and surrender.
Qu Zhengyan, who had always been good at walking a tightrope and ambushing troops, gave up the overly risky plan of ambushing troops in this battle after seeing Ba Li Su's resistance. In front of an experienced general like Ba Li Su, playing tricks could very well cause one to fall on the battlefield.
Combining all these factors, the battle in the Sword Garret became a fierce but relatively orderly one. Every time the Huaxia army attacked, they would identify a point and then eliminate that point. Step by step, they would advance to the top of the mountain. Once they were ready to launch a counterattack, the Huaxia army would calmly organize a defense and counter each other's moves. Of course, Qu Zhengyan did not gain too many advantages in terms of military tactics. Ba Li Su organized a few sudden counterattacks, and even large-scale artillery attacks, but they were all easily blocked by Qu Zhengyan and resolved.
Many years later, this battle, in which both sides commanded thousands of people to attack and defend, would appear again and again in the history of war. Both sides exerted all their strength in this intense and frequent confrontation.
This was the last battle of Ba Lisu's life as a veteran general of the Jin Kingdom. On the one hand, he faced all of this with the attitude of cutting off all means of retreat, calmly facing the death of his soldiers, and the shrinking of the defense line. On the other hand, although the fact that the battle strength of the two sides had reversed was pressing down on him like a mountain, he still organized fierce resistance at several key points and set up ingenious traps and ambushes.
Just like many of the Jurchen generals who had followed Aguda in his uprising decades ago, even though everything was going smoothly for them during the destruction of the Liao Empire and the Wu Kingdom, they had indulged in leisure and pleasure. But now that the situation was turning against them, they still brought out the same courage they had in the past. They calmly resisted in the face of a huge disadvantage, trying to forcibly tear open a path to survival in this world.
But this time, Qu Zhengyan calmly extinguished every ray of hope he had.
At the same time, Qu Zhengyan and the Fifth Army of Huaxia inside the Sword Garret were actually facing a very anxious situation.
The Seventh Army of Huaxia outside the Sword Garret had already sent back news of Wanyan Zonghan's state and intentions, and the Adviser Department of the Seventh Army was ready to deal with it head-on. On the one hand, this was the last chance for the Seventh Army to face Zonghan's troops head-on. On the other hand, it was also to deal with the local losses caused by Dai Mengwei's rebellion in Xiangfan and other places. If they didn't fight this battle, including Qi Xinhan, the resistance forces of the Han army would all be very uncomfortable.
Ning Yi could understand the necessity of this. But on the other hand, although he had some estimates of the combat strength of the Seventh Army in the previous combat competitions and tactical demonstrations, it was one thing to practice and discuss, and another to really pull it into the ever-changing battlefield. As Qu Zhengyan launched an attack on the Sword Garret, the troops inside the Fifth Army of the Southwest had already been mobilized bit by bit.
As Qu Zhengyan launched an attack on the Sword Garret, the troops inside the Fifth Army of the Southwest had already been mobilized bit by bit. Like a miser, Ning Yi further mobilized the originally extremely tense military structure. On the one hand, he tried to organize as many militias as possible to go forward, and on the other hand, he pulled out more than a thousand troops from the already stretched troops to prepare for the Sword Garret.
The whole process was a race against time. Within three days, the transfer and new arrangements were completed. In the process, some unspeakable arrangements were once criticized by later generations. Ning Yi concentrated the reduction of troops on the guards of several captive camps, and at the same time, he targeted the armed situation of the nearby troops (and even strengthened the epidemic prevention force). When the General Staff reported this to their superiors, it was possible that the captives would seize the opportunity to cause a mutiny. Ning Yi's answer was: "If there is a mutiny, then deal with it."
Facing the tense and uncontrollable situation outside the Sword Gate Pass, such a response showed that to a certain extent, Ning Yi was already prepared to kill the captives on a large scale. In particular, his behavior of strengthening the epidemic prevention force near the few captive camps with reduced troops and distributing epidemic prevention pamphlets further supported this speculation. This was to deal with the situation when a large number of corpses appeared in the wet mountains. Noticing this movement, the Huaxia soldiers raised the level of tension to a higher level in the next few days.
At the same time as the transfer of troops, Hou Wu and Hou Yuanyong, who were responsible for guarding the captives, consciously revealed the whole situation to the "leaders" among the captives. In particular, Ning Yi's understated order to "deal with the mutiny" was exaggerated in various ways.
The Huaxia army was indeed stretched thin, but the Inner Demon had already given up on mercy and was ready to take more cruel measures … Such news spread among some of the middle and high-level personnel who still had a reputation among the Jurchen captives, so the atmosphere among the captives became more tense and somber. Death or resistance, this was the last choice that some of the Jin captives had to face in their lives …
On the 20th of April, Qu Zhengyan did not conquer the Sword Garret as scheduled. Ning Yi lost his temper and sent a message to the frontline, "Ask him if he wants me to do it myself."
The battle of the Sword Garret ended on the afternoon of the 22nd of April. Balisu, who had been forced into a corner, allowed the rest of the Jin soldiers to surrender to the Huaxia army, and then led eight of his personal guards in a charge.
This was his final charge. The nearby Huaxia soldiers launched a frontal attack against the enemy, and his personal guards were killed one by one by the Huaxia army. A platoon leader of the Huaxia army named Wang Dai began to fight with Balisu. Both sides had been injured in the previous battle, but Balisu was finally killed by Wang Dai in a pool of blood.
Ning Yi led more than 1,200 people to the Sword Garret that afternoon. The Sword Garret was more than 300 kilometers away from Hanzhong. Considering the winding road, it would probably take about 500 kilometers to reach the battlefield. He ordered more than 1,200 fresh troops to set off first and attack Zhaohua as quickly as possible. "Tell Wanyan Zonghan that I'm coming."
On the same night, he was also in the Sword Garret and received the preliminary battle report from the Hanzhong Plain. Ning Yi and Qu Zhengyan were dumbfounded. "Are you kidding me? How can Zhenhan play micro-control like this?"
Qu Zhengyan did not quite understand the meaning of "micro-control". He just sighed and said, "These Female Zhenrens are very determined." They were at a disadvantage in the battle. They could either cut their wrists or suffer a crushing defeat, but Zong Han did not do that. He threw out his troops in batches, trying to exhaust the Seventh Army of Huaxia. If this kind of determination had been applied to the people of the Wu dynasty, there would have been no second southern invasion of the Jin Kingdom.
"… Zong Han did not want to engage in a large-scale battle. By throwing out his troops like this, each unit will only have some fighting strength in the first battle. Once they are defeated, they can only rely on the determination of these Female Zhenrens to go home. I think Zong Han may have set a mid-term goal and told these people where to gather after they were defeated. Then, he used the middle-level generals to gather the defeated soldiers. But the fighting strength of the defeated soldiers is limited … I think he may make people feel that there is an endless supply of troops at the beginning, but after a certain point, the whole structure will collapse … General Qin also saw this possibility, so he simply chose to deal with the ever-changing situation with no change and fight slowly one at a time … "
Qu Zhengyan speculated on the direction of the entire battle on the map. The distance was too far, so such speculations might not be useful. But in general, the Seventh Army did not fall into the trap and directly collapse. Overall, they could still fight calmly, which more or less eased Ning Yi's anxiety.
"This group of wastrels …" When he occasionally scolded like this, his tone was much more pleasant to the ear.
In the early morning of the 23rd, before dawn, 1,200 Huaxia soldiers took advantage of the night to launch a sneak attack and broke through the ancient city of Zhaohua, which was currently guarded by the Han army.
After the Female Zhenren left, there were about 20,000 Han soldiers guarding the city, but their attack did not meet with any resistance. They seemed to have expected the Huaxia army to come. When the vanguard of the Huaxia army quickly climbed up the city wall with ropes, almost without much fighting, the Han guards in the city had already knelt at the sight of the black flag.
According to the subsequent interrogation, some of the Han leaders had already escaped the city last night with the remaining gold and silver in the city.
After taking down the sword garret, the troops rested for a while. Ning Yi and Qu Zhengyan mobilized 800 soldiers who still had fighting strength and went north to Zhaohua to meet up with the vanguard.
On the afternoon of the same day, Fan Hongan, the commander of the Second Battalion, Third Regiment, Second Division, Huaxia's Seventh Army, led a group of soldiers to open the southern gate of Hanzhong. From a macro perspective, at this time, the tens of thousands of troops led by Zong Han were smashed by the Huaxia army's heavy hammers. Some of the defeated Jin soldiers fled towards Hanzhong. Since they had already considered the possibility of failure, the Female Zhenren could not refuse these defeated soldiers.
The circulation system that Zong Han had weaved in just a few days still had some problems in its operation. Fan Hongan took advantage of this loophole and began to build a defensive position after capturing the city gate. That afternoon, Chen Hai led more than 700 men in a mad rush. He also had the same idea of attacking Hanzhong, but Fan Hongan had beaten him to it.
After that, Gao Qingyi led the troops into the city from the west gate. Zong Han, Saba, Shema and the others also moved towards Hanzhong. That afternoon, Qin Shaoqian also rushed to Hanzhong. The crowd was constantly gathering. Inside Hanzhong, street battles were unfolding, and outside the city, preparations for positional warfare had begun.
That evening, Wanyan Xiyin appeared on the surface of the Han River to the east of Hanzhong with a mighty fleet of ships. He led the troops into battle. This was the last force that the Jurchen Western Army could mobilize. As soon as he learned that a battle was about to break out, he put aside his plan of besieging Qi Xinhan near Xiangfan and mobilized the fleet to go against the Han River to the west. At this moment, his appearance brought great pressure to the Seventh Army on the battlefield in Hanzhong.
From last year to this year, Wanyan Xiyin's existence was indeed the biggest headache for the Seventh Army. Even though the Seventh Army was strong, Xiyin's response was always the most correct and the most difficult to deal with. In the beginning, the Seventh Army attacked Zhaohua and engaged in a round of killing with the Mountain Guards. However, Xiyin mobilized hundreds of thousands of Han soldiers as cannon fodder, causing the Seventh Army's attack to fail. This year, he manipulated the situation in Xiangfan and caused tens of thousands of Han soldiers to be defeated. Even Qi Xinhan risked great danger to march thousands of kilometers, but in the end, he fell into a trap. The resistance in the Greenwood Forest near Xiangfan was wiped out.
Facing such an enemy was the same as facing Ning Yi. Even though there was no fear in terms of combat strength, no one knew when they would fall into a trap. In short, there would still be psychological pressure.
Fortunately, another round of news had already arrived.
The Fifth Army of Huaxia had broken through the Sword Garret, killed Ba Li Su, and then attacked Zhaohua. Ning Yi and Qu Zhengyan were leading their troops in the direction of Hanzhong. Once they were caught by this Inner Demon, the defeat at the Barbarian Bridge could be repeated at the banks of the Han River.
On the 24th of the third month, the Han troops to the east and south of the Han River were still unable to determine which side had the upper hand between the Seventh Army and the Zong Han Brigade. However, the news of Ning Yi breaking through the Sword Gate Pass had already spread thousands of kilometers away.
At this time, Dai Mengwei and the others had not yet finished receiving the large number of Jurchen supplies and personnel south of Xiangfan. The news of him "saving" millions of civilians was still in the early stages of the propaganda. On this day, the Han generals who had gathered near Xicheng City and had just pledged their loyalty to Dai Mengwei met and exchanged information in private.
"The Inner Demon killed his way out of the Sword Garret … heading for Hanzhong …"
When they talked about this matter, their faces and tones were pale and solemn …
(End of this chapter)
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