"Yes, Your Highness!" The messenger left.
"Your Highness, you should make a decision soon," urged his subordinate.
Wu Qunlie raised his hand and stopped him. He paced back and forth without saying a word.
The situation made it hard for him to make a decision. Why would Meng Shanming launch an attack at this time? Why would there be so many Yan soldiers in the Song Kingdom's defense line? Logically speaking, that was impossible! If there were a lot of soldiers crossing the river, it was impossible that no one noticed them. The main force of the Yan army had been watching them from the other side of the river.
The situation was complicated for him.
Although the main force of the Hukou defensive area was only 300,000 men, Zhang Hu's side and the Yan Kingdom's imperial court's forces totaled about 600,000 men. The Hukou defensive area was at a disadvantage, but this was not a ground battle. It was a land battle, and the Hukou defensive area had the upper hand.
Furthermore, Zhang Hu's side occupied more than just a few prerequisites. Logically speaking, it was impossible for Zhang Hu's side to break through the defensive line of 300,000 soldiers at Hukou Defensive Zone with simple wooden rafts in the middle of the night. Firstly, the speed at which the wooden rafts moved across the river was not just a little bit inferior to that of a boat.
However, a large number of Yan soldiers appeared behind Hukou's defensive zone. This was what worried him the most.
He urgently needed to know the movements of Xu Jingyue and the others on the other side of the river. He did not want Hukou to be a diversion.
…
After receiving the military order from Meng Shanming, Xu Jingyue's troops were mobilizing their men and horses by the riverside, manipulating the wooden rafts.
Although the rain had lightened, it was still drizzling. The wind and rain were still intertwined. The river bank was lit by torches and there were moving torches everywhere.
Xu Jingyue stood on the embankment in the rain. He held the sword by his waist and looked at the lights on the other side of the river.
His subordinate hurried over and said, "Your Highness, everything is ready. We can attack at any time."
Xu Jingyue wiped the rain off his face and said, "Did I say attack? Don't stop. Continue to attack. Create a commotion. Make it big! Let's row the rafts and come back. Do it a few times. "
His subordinate was shocked, "Feint?"
Xu Jingyue: "Don't ask me, I don't know what's going on either. Since Commander Meng gave this order, there must be a deeper meaning behind it. We won't lose anything anyway. Just treat it as a chance for everyone to practice their skills in driving a raft on the river."
He really did not know what was going on. The movements of Zhang Hu's troops had been top secret from the beginning. Other than a few of the direct participants, who were also the decision-makers, everyone else was kept in the dark. It was impossible for too many people to know about it.
At this time, not only Xu Jingyue's troops, but An Xianzhao's troops, Su Qi's troops, and Shi Xinmao's troops were also making big movements by the riverside.
The Yan army was ready for an all-out attack.
…
Meng Shanming was also at the bank of the river. He came out of his tent to watch the battle.
Under the light of the night, a cultivator held a large umbrella to block the rain for the person in the wheelchair. Gong Lince also stood beside the wheelchair and watched. The scene of hundreds of thousands of people crossing the river was very spectacular.
There were countless wooden rafts of various sizes, and the largest one could accommodate over a hundred soldiers at the same time.
"Report! The scouts have sent news that Qingqu's three hundred thousand men and horses are moving at top speed towards Hukou. "One of the scouts came to Meng Shanming's side and reported urgently.
Meng Shanming nodded, indicating that he understood.
After the scout left, Gong Lince asked, "Is General Meng not worried at all when the reinforcements arrive?"
Meng Shanming said, "It will take at least half a day for the troops from Qingqu to arrive. If we cannot break through Hukou's defensive zone by daybreak, there is no need to fight anymore. It is no longer important whether the reinforcements arrive or not."
Gong Lince said, "Once the Song Kingdom's reinforcements arrive, will our troops be able to handle them?"
"The rest of the Song Kingdom's troops have been stopped and do not dare to act rashly. Although Song Junjiang's troops have the advantage in terms of defense, defense itself is a disadvantage. The attackers can attack any point at any time and find a weak point at any time. As long as they can attack one point, the defense line will collapse on its own. Therefore, defense alone is not the best defense. The best defense is to have both offense and defense. " When Meng Shanming said this, he turned to look at Luo Daan. He did not seem to be explaining to Gong Lince, but to Luo Daan.
Everyone looked at Luo Daan, and Luo Daan nodded thoughtfully.
…
"It's about time. The reinforcements are almost here. Retreat!"
Right Commander Sun Gaotian, who had commanded five thousand men to launch a night raid on the grain storage area, gave an order, and the attackers immediately stopped and retreated.
This sudden retreat caught the defenders of the grain storage area off guard.
"Don't chase a desperate enemy!"
The commander of the granary saw that his subordinates were about to give chase and immediately stopped them.
He had his own concerns. How were they going to chase in the middle of the night? What if they fell into an ambush?
His main responsibility was not to kill the enemy, but to protect the army's food.
As the defenders were reorganizing their defenses, a fire dragon came from afar. The 100,000 reinforcements sent by Xu Laiping of Hukou's defensive zone had arrived.
When the two sides met, they realized that the sneak attackers had already retreated.
The retreating attackers had lost more than 500 men. Sun Gaotian's heart was heavy, but he still heaved a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the enemy did not know their strength and did not dare to attack first. Otherwise, it would be difficult to make up for the loss of 500 men.
After retreating for a while, Zhang Hu received news of the granary reinforcements' retreat. He ordered them to set up an ambush along the path of the reinforcements to prevent the 100,000 men from retreating. Once they retreated, they were to stop them on the spot and buy time for the main force to break through the Song army's defensive line.
Sun Gaotian led his troops and rushed to the location that Zhang Hu had specified. It was a narrow mountainous area with a path in the middle. If the reinforcements were to retreat, they would have to pass through it.
Sun Gaotian could not be bothered with fatigue. He immediately ordered his men to set up obstacles, such as cutting down trees or pushing down rocks to stop the reinforcements from passing through.
Even though they didn't know if the reinforcements from the granary would retreat, they still had to be fully prepared. After all, they were facing an army of a hundred thousand. With just a few thousand people, they wouldn't be able to stop them at all. They had to create enough obstacles to delay the enemy's reinforcements.
Fortunately, there were many cultivators here. These cultivators volunteered and, under Sun Gaotian's guidance, quickly set up obstacles that would help the reinforcements.
As for the few thousand men, Sun Gaotian ordered them to quickly eat and rest.
On this dark, rainy night, on this muddy ground, the few thousand men sat down to rest. Their dirty hands were covered in mud as they took out their soaked rations and wolfed them down. They did not look human anymore. They did not care if they were dirty or not. It was good enough that they had food to eat.
Zhang Hu had been on the battlefield for a long time. It was not unreasonable for him to be prepared in advance.
Xu Laiping, the commander of Hukou's defensive zone, quickly realized that something was wrong. He suspected that he had fallen into a trap. When the enemy started attacking, he immediately judged the severity of the situation.
Once this line of defense was lost, the door to the Kingdom of Song would open. He would then become the greatest sinner of the Kingdom of Song.
He decisively abandoned the granary, or rather, the loss of the granary was no longer important. At this time, the defensive line was the most important. They could think of a way to deal with the loss of the granary, but once the defensive line was breached, the consequences would be unimaginable.
He urgently ordered the 100,000 men who had rushed to reinforce the granary to retreat at top speed.
Later, he received a message from the governor of the river defense, Wu Qunlie, which proved that his judgment was correct. Wu Qunlie also wanted him to immediately withdraw the reinforcements from the granary and concentrate on defending the Hukou line of defense. They had already sent 300,000 soldiers from Qingqu. If anything happened, they had to wait for reinforcements from Qingqu to arrive no matter what.
In short, they had to defend the Hukou line of defense at all costs. The granary was no longer important!
Xu Laiping's actions were ahead of the others. The 100,000 reinforcements that he had sent out quickly retreated.
The battle on the river began. The sounds of killing from both sides shook the heavens. The densely packed wooden rafts stabbed diagonally toward the opposite bank with the help of the current.
On the shore, fireballs flew across the drizzling night sky.
When they smashed onto the surface of the river, they floated like flaming lanterns. Things that looked like cages continued to float and burn on the surface of the river.
When they smashed onto the wooden rafts, the oil flasks and earthen jars in the cages immediately shattered. The intensity of the fireballs immediately exploded. The people who were splashed by the flaming oil screamed miserably and jumped into the water, regardless of whether they knew how to swim or not.
Some people put out the fire on their bodies while others used wooden planks to splash water to extinguish the fire.
In an instant, flames were everywhere on the pitch-black east bank of the river. If there were no sounds of killing and miserable screams, it might have been a beautiful scene.
The stones that were thrown out by the stone catapults whistled from the river bank and smashed into the densely packed wooden rafts on the river surface. Miserable screams and the sound of the wooden rafts cracking from being smashed mixed with the rumbling of the falling boulders and resounded through the night sky.
"Release the arrows!" The general guarding the riverside waved his sword and roared. A group of archers drew their bows and shot in unison. The black shadows of the arrows whistled through the night sky and countless people on the river surface screamed miserably.
Some wooden rafts were parked in the middle of the river. A group of cultivators cast spells to keep them from drifting. Standing on the rafts were the commanders of various departments.
Zhang Hu personally came to the frontline. Standing on a wooden raft, he pulled out his sword and roared, "Attack! Those who retreat will be killed! "
He was forcing the people of the imperial court to be the vanguard. Some people who knew how to swim jumped into the river and swam back, but they were immediately shot by the arrows and dyed the river red. Some cultivators slashed their sword energies and killed the law enforcers. In short, he was forcing the army to charge forward at the risk of death.
Meng Shanming had said that this battle concerned the life and death of Yan Kingdom. They could only win, not lose. Therefore, they were using human lives to fight!
The attack from the river defense was too fierce. It was difficult for the people on this side to reach the shore. Even those who managed to reach the shore couldn't withstand the attacks from the large number of enemies.
The battle was in a stalemate.
On the other side, the one hundred thousand retreating reinforcements were finally stopped at a place they had to pass. More than four thousand officers and soldiers were facing the attack of one hundred thousand people. They were bathed in blood and fought fiercely in the layers of obstacles set up by the enemy. It was a tragic and stirring scene. Even the cultivators who accompanied the army were fighting the enemy with their lives.
In the battle on the riverside, after a fierce battle, the arrows on the riverside were getting tired. Zhang Hu gave an order, and a large number of cultivators of Yan Kingdom began to rush to the riverside.
The cultivators from the State of Song immediately flew out in droves to meet the attacking cultivators from the State of Yan. The two sides fought desperately above the river. They flew into the sky and dove into the water. The battle was intense and many of the wooden rafts below were inevitably affected.
Seeing that a large number of cultivators of Song Kingdom had been lured out and entangled, Zhang Hu, who had a ferocious look on his face, suddenly turned around and said sternly, "Send my order to the Left Commander Guo Xianfu. Tell the hidden troops to attack immediately!"
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