Across the Water Margin: Officials of Ximen

Page 346

At this time, after Taiwei Gao received Hu Yanzhuo's false report on his military exploits, how could he sit still?Angrily, he tore up Hu Yanzhuo's letter of good news, and sent a secret letter to Hu Yanzhuo, asking him to pursue Song Jiang's thieves with all his strength, seize the opportunity to fight Song Jiang decisively as soon as possible, and completely wipe out this group of rogues.

Gao Taiwei hinted in the letter to Hu Yanzhuo that there is not much time left for him to perform.After Taiwei Tongguan served as the Xuanfu envoy of Jiang, Huai, Jing, Zhejiang and other roads, the officers and troops of Huainan East and West Roads were also controlled by him.When Tong Taiwei freed up his hands to take over the official troops in the Lianghuai area, I'm afraid it would be very difficult for local troops to cooperate with Huyanzhuo's army in combat.

After Hu Yanzhuo received Gao Yu's secret letter, he did not dare to play the cat-and-mouse game with Song Jiang's bandit army anymore. Instead, he ordered the whole army to chase after him. The army caught up with the Song Jiang bandit army who left Huainan and went north.

At this time, Hu Yanzhuo had already felt the subtle changes in the attitudes of Huainan states towards his army after the political situation in North Korea and China changed during the pursuit.Except for the states and counties threatened by Song Jiang's army who called him to rescue them, other states and counties that were safe and sound became silent on the matter of begging for thieves.

In the past few days, even the Huainan righteous men who often acted as guides for Hu Yanzhuo's army have gradually disappeared.Fortunately, the vanguard general Han Tao desperately chased after him with the cavalry, so he didn't lose the Song Jiang bandit army.

After Song Jiang's bandit army once again occupied Xiapi City of the Huaiyang Army, it seemed that they were tired from running. It is in a state of being connected with Liangshan Park.

Hu Yanzhuo didn't know that Song Jiang, Chai Jin and others went south to the east and west of Huainan in order to coerce the people who were dissatisfied with Tai Fu Yang Jian's harsh government all the way, and strengthen their own army.Now that Song Jiang and Chai Jin have achieved their goals in Huainan, they naturally have to return north to Beijing.

In the end, the strategy of Song Jiang's army still had to follow the original plan, first occupying the Huaiyang Army, Xuzhou, Danzhou, Jeju and other places that consolidated the east and west roads of Beijing, and connected with Liangshanbo, eight hundred miles away.

Song Jiang, Chai Jin, Jiang Jing and others were discussing military plans in Xiapi City, and they all thought that Hu Yanzhuo's army was already exhausted after being dragged by him to so many states.At this time, the Liangshan army in Song Jiang's hands was powerful, and he just waited for work to annihilate the Huyanzhuo army in the territory of Huaiyang army, so that he could implement the next expansion strategy.

Hu Yanzhuo didn't know that Song Jiang's bandit army had changed their strategy and was waiting for a decisive battle.After he led his army into Suqian County, he faced the Song Jiang bandit army in Xiapi City across Surabaya.

Hu Yanzhuo was afraid that Song Jiang, the bandit at Liangshanpo, would run away with the bandit army, so he wrote a letter of war and asked his soldiers to send them to Xiapi city. Even the grooms in the army were scolded bloody, and asked Song Jiang, the bandit with tattoos, if he would dare to fight Hu Yanzhuo.

Chapter 561 Hu Yanzhuo's Iron Bucket Encirclement

"It's very close to the long embankment to protect the water and autumn, and it is full of yellow leaves. The residents are close to the Maling Road, and the moraine is spread to the roof of the tile house. In the past, Sun Pang had a decisive victory, but now the grass and trees are still sad. I don't know that the seven kingdoms are all lost, and I still park my car Diaoguqiu."

This ancient poem describes Maling Mountain in the territory of Huaiyang Army.

Maling Mountain starts from Yishui County, Yizhou in the north, connects with Yiling, and ends in Suqian County of Huaiyang Army in the south.This mountain is rich in mountains and hills, with hidden beauty, and its shape is famous in Jianghuai.

Maling Mountain is high in the north and low in the south, and looks like a galloping horse from a distance, hence the name Maling Mountain.Entering the mountains, you can see deep gullies and winding streams, vertical and horizontal mountains, dense forests, and changeable terrain, ups and downs.

Historically, during the Warring States period, Qi and Wei fought for hegemony, and the famous Battle of Maling took place here.

In 342 BC, Wei State sent troops to attack South Korea, and South Korea asked Qi State for help.Qi State agreed to rescue, so as to urge South Korea to try its best to resist Wei State.

King Wei of Qi took Tian Pan as his general, Tian Ying and Tian Ji as his lieutenants, and Sun Bin as his military adviser. He once again used the tactic of "surrounding Wei and saving Zhao" 11 years ago to lead his troops to Daliang, the capital of Wei, to lure Wei's army back to rescue them, so as to relieve South Korea's turmoil.Wei Jun heard the news and returned, but Qi Jun had already detoured and retreated eastward.

Needless to say, Wei Guo was angry and resentful when he saw that the victory was in sight, but Qi Guo was obstructing it.So he decided to let South Korea go, and turned his troops to the Qi army.After the Wei army that attacked Han retreated, King Hui of Wei appointed Prince Shen as the general and Pang Juan as the general.

The Qi army had entered the deep area of ​​Wei State, and the Wei army followed.Aiming at the fact that the Wei soldiers despised the Qi army, after carefully studying the terrain conditions of the battlefield, Sun Bin made a plan to reduce the number of stoves to lure the enemy and set up an ambush to gather and annihilate.

The Qi army faked the illusion that a large number of Qi soldiers fled under the pursuit of the Wei army, and took advantage of the favorable terrain in Maling Mountain to choose [-] archers from the Qi army who were good at archery to lie in ambush on both sides of the road on Maling Road. At night, under the banner of fire, they shoot arrows together.

Sun Bin also asked someone to peel off the bark of a big tree beside the road, and wrote on it the words "Pang Juan died under this tree".

General Pang Juan of the Wei army saw that the Qi army was retreating to avoid the battle but was losing weight every day after chasing him for three consecutive days.

So Pang Juan ordered his troops to abandon their infantry and luggage, and only brought some lightly armed elite cavalry to chase the Qi army to Maling Mountain day and night.

After entering Maling Road, Pang Juan saw words written on the peeled tree trunks by the roadside, but he couldn't see clearly in the dark, so he asked someone to light a torch for illumination.

Before the words were finished, the Qi army fired ten thousand crossbows, and dealt a thunderous blow to the Wei army.Wei Jun suddenly panicked, defeated and defeated.Pang Juanzhi was exhausted, and seeing that the defeat had been decided, he committed suicide in shame.

The Qi army took advantage of the victory to pursue, defeated the Wei army in succession, and captured Prince Shen, the coach of the Wei army.After this battle, Wei State's vitality was seriously injured, and it lost its status as the overlord of the Warring States Period.

After receiving Hu Yanzhuo's insulting war letter, Song Jiang led the main force of the Liangshan Army stationed in Xiapi City to advance to the foot of Maling Mountain in the north of Suqian County, east of Luoma Lake, to fight against Hu Yanzhuo's army on the ancient battlefield of Maling Mountain. A showdown.

Luoma Lake is four small unconnected lakes formed on a depression east of Zhihekou, north of Sishui, and west of Maling Mountain when Yishui flows into Sizhu.The one in the middle is called Dajiang Lake, the one in the northwest is called Yutou Lake, the one in the northeast is called Niantou Lake, and the one in the south is called Luoma Lake. Later, this lake area was collectively called Luoma Lake.

After Song Jiang investigated the reality of Hu Yanzhuo's army, he adopted Jiang Jing's plan, the "magic operator" of the military division, and booked the battlefield at the foot of Maling Mountain, beside Luoma Lake.Song Jiang also returned a letter of war to Hu Yanzhuo, and sneered at the three generals, "Double Whip" Hu Yanzhuo, "Yumi Victory General" Han Tao, and "Tianmu General" Peng Qi.

In Suqian City, after reading the letter of war sent by Song Jiang, Hu Yanzhuo, the chief general of the army, showed the letter to his lieutenants Han Tao and Peng Qi, and said with disdain, "These grass bandits don't know any art of war. The class is trying to use that aggressive method against me and the three of us? This general has been familiar with military books since he was a child, how could he be fooled by that bandit Song Jiang? The bandit leader Song Jiang invited our army to a decisive battle at the foot of Maling Mountain. What do the two brothers think? ?”

"Tianmu General" Peng Qi smiled after reading Song Jiang's battle letter: "Hahaha~ Song Jiang is extremely ridiculous! Did he deceive the three of us not to know the Maling Mountain on the north bank of Surabaya? We are waiting for the generals, who doesn't know this place? Is it the ancient battlefield of the battle of Maling between Qi and Wei? That fellow Song Jiang must learn from Sun Bin’s tricks and lure our army to pursue him after ambush in the mountains. Hehe~ Brother Huyan is not Pang Juan, how could he be led into Maling Road by these gangsters? "

"The Victorious General" Han Tao also said: "Brother Peng Qi is right! I see that the robbers in Liangshanbo are a mob who hastily formed an army, lack of training, and have no sophisticated armor and equipment. How dare those fellows fight The plain area is facing our army head-on? I think those guys probably want to use their bandits' best mountain climbing skills to lead our army into the decisive battle at Maling Mountain."

Hu Yanzhuo smiled and said: "Hahaha~ The two brothers said that this general has gone deep into his heart. That fellow Song Jiang is also worthy of learning Sun Bin's Ma Lingdao warfare? What a wishful thinking! How could this general give up the advantage of cavalry and fight against his group? Grass bandits are going around in Maling Mountain? In the coming battle, I will lead the elite soldiers to drive those grass bandits into Maling Mountain, and only need to guard the valley entrance of Maling Road. Even if those guys have ambushes, what can they do to me? Our army only needs to stay on the flat ground at the foot of the mountain and cut off the food of Song Jiang's bandit army, and within a few days, the bandit army in the mountain will be starved of food, so why don't you guys surrender obediently?"

Han Tao heard the words and said: "Brother Huyan, if Song Jiang's treacherous plan fails to succeed, and after being sealed up in the mountains by our army, he refuses to surrender and instead goes eastward across Maling Mountain and flees into Haizhou, how should our army respond? ?”

Hu Yanzhuo said: "It's okay! The Liangshan bandit army fled eastward across the mountains and ridges to Haizhou, but it was a dead end. Among the Huainan East Road, only Zhang Shuye, the prefect of Haizhou, served as Lanzhou's secretary in the northwest and joined the army. He has the experience of fighting the Qiang people, and he is a man who is good at using soldiers. Moreover, Zhang Shuye, the prefect of Haizhou, and his family are not in harmony with the prime minister Cai Jing, so they are definitely willing to cooperate with our army. Ride on a fast horse and tell Zhang Shuye, the magistrate of Haizhou, to prevent Song Jiang's bandits from fleeing eastward. Song Jiang went to Haizhou, but he fell into the trap of himself!"

After hearing this, Peng Qi said, "Brother Huyan has a great plan! However, my younger brother thinks that after the Song Jiang bandit army is trapped in Mount Maling, they still have another choice, which is to flee northward along Mount Maling and enter Yizhou. Although The mountain roads along the way are rugged and there are many passes, but we must guard against them. Our army might as well inform the magistrate of Yizhou in advance and ask him to set up more soldiers and horses in the passes to block the way for the Liangshanbo robbers to go north. In this way, the Songjiang thieves The army will surely die in Maling Mountain."

The two generals Hu Yanzhuo and Han Tao listened, nodded their heads, and made a plan to encircle Song Jiang's bandit army.

Chapter 562 Iron Armored Serial Horse

"Double Whip" Hu Yanzhuo, together with his two lieutenants, "Yumian General" Han Tao and "Tianmu General" Peng Qi, made a plan to trap Song Jiang's army in Maling Mountain, and sent a flying horse to inform Huainan East Road Zhang Shuye, governor of Haizhou, and Jiang Yuan, governor of Yizhou on Jingdong East Road, reminded and urged the troops of the two states to defend the pass of Maling Mountain and cooperate with Hu Yanzhuo's army to encircle Songjiang, the bandit Kou Songjiang in Liangshan.

After getting in touch with Haizhou and Yizhou, Hu Yanzhuo left the "Tianmu General" Peng Qi to lead [-] troops to defend Suqian County and Surabaya in the north of the county, and along the Zhongyun River to prevent the Songjiang bandits from finding a gap and fleeing southward into the Huainan area again.Afterwards, Hu Yanzhuo and the "General of Victory" Han Tao took [-] elite officers and troops to the north to cross Surabaya, and set up a camp at the foot of Maling Mountain, south of Liangshanbo's bandit army.

Hu Yanzhuo and Han Tao led the Huaiyang army's native guides and rode out of the camp to watch the camp of the Songjiang bandit army. As expected, the Liangshan Po bandit army placed the camp near the entrance of the ancient Maling Road.Hu Yanzhuo and Han Tao smiled when they met each other, and immediately mocked Song Jiang for his imitation.

In the barracks of the Liangshan Po Army, someone also saw Hu Yanzhuo and Han Tao from a distance. A group of young people climbed up the wall of the village and insulted them endlessly through the gate of the village.

Amidst the scolding, the two armies sent envoys to challenge each other, and soon agreed to compete the next day.

The next day, both armies got up early, buried pots in the camp to cook, and had a full meal. They were going to fight in battle at the foot of Maling Mountain to decide the outcome.

Amid the sound of war drums, Song Jiang, Chai Jin, Li Jun, Ou Peng, Jiang Jing, and Du Qian were neatly dressed, and led [-] cavalry and infantry soldiers out of the stronghold to arrange the next fish-scale formation. "Moyun Golden Wings" Ou Peng held a big hob and rushed out of the formation at the head of the horse, shouting in front of the formation of the two armies.

The officers and soldiers had already set up their formations. Seeing Ou Peng boasting of his bravery in front of the formation, Han Tao, the vanguard general, also rushed out of the formation. Therefore, if you don’t think about surrendering early, but dare to resist, you are not asking for death! I will fill up your water pond, crush Liangshan, capture your gang of rebels alive, and escort you back to Bianliang City in Tokyo to smash your corpse into thousands of pieces!"

"Moyun Golden Wings" Ou Peng heard it, but didn't say anything, so he patted his horse and danced with a big hob, and went straight to Han Tao.

The battle drums in Hu Yanzhuo's army were beating, and Han Tao, the "Hundred Victory General", knew that Hu Yanzhuo was cheering for him, so he jumped on his horse and came to fight Ou Peng.

"Moyun Golden Wing" Ou Peng was originally from a military family in the Song Army, and he has good martial arts skills in fighting, and he is proficient in using big hobs;The two generals were singled out in front of the two armies, they met their opponents in chess, and the generals met good talents, and they fought for dozens of rounds with no distinction between the winners and losers.

In the Liangshan Po army, Song Jiang saw that Ou Peng had been invincible for a long time, fearing that he might make a mistake, he hurriedly called for gold to ask Ou Peng to withdraw from the battle.

Hearing the sound of gold ringing in the formation, Ou Peng split Han Tao's horse with a knife, and cursed: "The dog official of the imperial court, my master will spare your life today!" Turning the horse's head, he retreated into the formation.

Hu Yanzhuo in the army formation saw that the Liangshan Po army had lost their momentum, immediately beat the drums and waved the flag, and rushed forward with all their troops and horses.

When Song Jiang saw him, he was afraid that he would rush over, so he waved the command flag in the middle army. The leaders led the soldiers, big and small, to hide and kill them together, and fought with Huyanzhuo's army.

When the two armies joined the battle, the vanguard suddenly led Han Tao aside, revealing the armored heavy cavalry hidden behind him.Under the command of the chief general Hu Yanzhuo, these heavy cavalry launched an assault on Song Jiang's army in a conical formation.

It turned out that in order to succeed in the first battle, Hu Yanzhuo hid his main force in the formation, three thousand heavy cavalry with iron armor and serial horses.I saw the horses of the officers and soldiers wearing vests, and the men wearing iron armor.Horses wear armor, with only four hooves hanging on the ground, and people wear armor, with only a pair of eyes exposed.These heavy cavalry were not afraid of bows and arrows, and rushed into the army formation of the Liangshan bandit army with their long spears.

Although there are armored horses in Song Jiang's formation, they are just red tasseled masks and copper bells and pheasant tails.Shoot the arrows here, and the officers and soldiers are protected by armor there.The [-] horse troops charged forward without hesitation, and the horse infantry in Liangshanbo couldn't resist the enemy and retreated one after another.

Several leaders protected Song Jiang and retreated into the army stronghold, defending behind closed doors, only then blocked the rampage of Hu Yanzhuo's armored chain horse. "Moyun Golden Wings" Ou Peng had no time to retreat, so he took a group of men and horses and fled to the east along the ancient Maling Road.

Hu Yanzhuo and Han Tao led the army in hot pursuit, but Ou Peng led all cavalry, so he couldn't catch up and let him escape into the ancient Maling Road.Hu Yanzhuo and Han Tao suspected fraud, so they put away their troops and returned victorious.