Chapter 730: 730 The angry army
Chapter 730 730 The angry army
On the road, densely packed troops can be seen as far as the eye can see. The soldiers of Dahua walked on the road home step by step with their tired legs in the humid air.
They were very depressed because they finally walked from Nanfengkou to Lijiacun, and then from Lijiacun to Xicong.
They were really tortured along the way: it rained continuously when they arrived, and everyone could only walk a few kilometers every day. There was mud and water everywhere, which severely tortured the feet of the Dahua army.
As mentioned before, this kind of weather is very unfriendly to the feet of soldiers. Wet boots will cause the feet to start to rot. Soldiers generally suffer from beriberi. When the fungal cross-infection is serious, it can make people miserable.
Hence, the march from Nanfengkou to Xicong was extremely slow. The soldiers complained, and the officers were equally miserable.
Compared to the well-equipped Tang Army, Dahua's troops were worse in details. They did not have enough rainproof equipment, their raincoats were of poor quality, and almost half of them did not have such equipment at all.
These people can only make do with traditional raincoats and leather, and then they get soaked while walking on the road.
Influenza is rampant in the army. If it had not purchased some drug preparation technology from Datang Medicine, the Dahua army itself might have collapsed at this time.
Even so, the consumption of medicines is also very huge, and military doctors have to be busy for a long time every day to comfort those unlucky people who keep coughing and having fever.
It was not until this moment that the Dahua troops who had gathered to advance towards Xicong remembered that they were here to fight.
But they haven't seen Datang's enemies yet, and they are about to kill themselves. Just when these troops were waiting angrily to go to Xicong to vent their anger on the Tang people, they received the order to retreat...
Qian Jinhang didn't even know how to mention this matter to these troops. They had walked such a long distance in the rain with great pains, but in the end they had to go back the same way without firing a shot.
This is desperate news for everyone. So after calming the emotions of the soldiers for more than a day, the troops who received the order to return to defense began to move slowly.
Due to the rain, the tent was basically soaked through, and most of the white canvas that had been brushed with waterproof tung oil had almost lost its waterproof function.
These heavy things were piled haphazardly on the carriage. The soldiers looked at the gray sky and took steps again helplessly.
Their shoes were covered in mud because the supply convoys had rolled over them over and over again, so the road they came from was already very muddy.
The soldiers walked one foot deep and one foot shallow, and from time to time they could see a group of people crowded in the middle of the road, pushing a carriage stuck in the mud while chanting.
Along with the soldiers, there were artillery pieces of various calibers crowding the road. These are the most valuable items in the army and cannot be thrown away easily.
So the soldiers had to constantly stop to help push these heavy iron lumps out of the mud pit when they were on the road. Therefore, the troop's marching speed could simply be described as crawling.
They were moving slowly on the ground like turtles. Within a few miles, they had to consider camping again - even though they had just left the previous camp a few hours ago, they now had to start looking for a relatively dry place. Some places once again set up camp.
This is why after so many days of departure, the Tang army had already captured Tengyun, and they had just arrived at Lijiacun.
There is no other way. Morale has been tortured by the continuous rush to the verge of collapse. Even the commanders of Dahua dare not easily force these soldiers who are on the verge of exploding like explosives.
“Lijia Village is ahead. The forward troops have already crossed there... It will take about two days before we can return to Nanfengkou.” A commander stood on the high ground, overlooking his troops.
Like a giant snake, his troops snaked on the road. The land on both sides was full of camps, and there were endless carriages, cars and cannons parked.
"The road will be easy to walk soon. I heard that the road has been being built before. It has been paved with stones from Nanfengkou to Lijiacun." Another general thought of the previous message and comforted himself.
“What have you been doing?” The general of the Dahua Army snorted coldly, obviously very dissatisfied with the logistics engineering troops.
This road should have been repaired a long time ago, or at least some stones should be paved to make it easier for the troops to walk. Improving the efficiency of supply will also make the front line more comfortable, right?
However, due to reasons such as rainfall and war conditions, the plan to build this road was obviously delayed. Until recently, it was barely built near Lijiacun.
But they have also reached Lijiacun, and there are good roads going back. This is undoubtedly good news for the Dahua troops. In this way, they can rush back to the south wind outlet more quickly. Once there, they can enter the city, at least eat a few hot meals, live in a covered house for a few days, and let the troops rest and recuperate.
As for the Tang army going south to threaten Nanfengkou, it was actually not a big deal in the eyes of the commanders of the retreating Dahua troops.
After all, as long as they reach Nanfengkou, with more than 200,000 troops stationed in a supply transfer station with strong fortifications, the Tang army may not be able to do anything against them in a short period of time.
"I don't know what's going on with General Ding Hong. It should be fine if we stay on guard for two days, right?" Breathing the humid air, the leading commander asked with his hands behind his back.
There were only two drizzles in the past two days. Overall, the weather was pretty good. At least there were no obstacles to the march. It was obviously much better than the heavy downpour.
Although for the overall war situation, the weather has cleared up is not good news. But for the retreating Dahua troops, the increasingly sunny weather is obviously good.
"Don't worry, the previous message said that General Ding Hong has at least 50,000 troops in his hands and will only defend them for two or three days. There shouldn't be any problems." The general next to him said with certainty.
Not to mention that the Tang army came all the way from afar, but there were still 50,000 people. The Dahua army relied on permanently prepared fortifications and should be confident that it could last two or three days.
"What's more, didn't Ding Hong just send a message a few hours ago, saying that he repelled another attack by the Tang Army and that the outer defense line of Nanfengkou is still there and is impregnable?" Then, the general added.
"The battle situation is changing rapidly, so we should be more cautious." The general with his hands behind his back was a little worried. He couldn't tell what would go wrong, but he was always worried about what might go wrong.
This feeling can be said to be the sixth sense or intuition, like a rat on a ship that is about to be silenced, like a suspicious wife whose husband has cheated on her...
While the two people were talking, a fast horse galloped from the road. The knight on the horse shouted loudly, ignoring the cursing soldiers on the way, and rushed through the crowd without slowing down.
The soldiers walking on the road gave way, but soon the knight rushed down the roadbed and rushed towards the high ground here.
The knight waved his whip and kept whipping his mount until he reached the front of the hillside and met the guards, and then he got off his horse.
He staggered all the way up to the high ground, panted and came to several generals, pointed in the direction of Lijia Village, lowered his voice and cried out: "It's bad! Tang Army! Tang Army is coming to kill!"
"What?" The general who came up to help the signal soldier was frightened when he heard the news, and almost threw the signal soldier to the ground.
The signal soldier staggered, raised his head and repeated mournfully: "No! The Tang army is coming! They have arrived at Lijia Village! They have already arrived at Lijia Village!"
"Nonsense! How could the Tang army appear in Lijiacun!" The leading general scolded the other party with a downcast face.
The knight quickly defended himself: "General! I am the communications soldier of the 1st Regiment of the 204th Division of the Pioneer Force... We just arrived at Lijia Village. After entering, we found that there were Tang Army tanks in the village. Then they started fighting, and the entire 1st Regiment was defeated. The 204th Division has lost most of its headquarters. I was ordered to report the news!"
The signal soldier spoke more and more fluently, and briefly reported the situation. Such detailed battle conditions made several generals have to believe that there was indeed a Tang Army unit in Lijia Village who didn't know where they came from.
"The tank force...this...couldn't it be the Tang army that came from both wings and surrounded us?" A general frowned and guessed a possibility.
"There is no news from the troops in the north. Logically speaking, it is unlikely..." another general immediately retorted. It's just that his tone of voice was not firm, and his voice became a little softer as he spoke.
However, someone soon raised another possibility: "Could there be a problem at Nanfengkou? If the Tang army came from Nanfengkou, it would be terrible."
Hearing what he said, many people turned pale with fright: If Nanfengkou was really lost, then their situation would be really not good: "It's unlikely, right? How could Ding Hong lose it? Nanfengkou?”
On the other side, the leading general frowned and looked in the direction of Lijiacun - he was no longer willing to guess whether Nanfengkou was lost or the Tang army behind him was catching up from the flank.
Because these issues are no longer important, all he can think about now is: where should his nearly 200,000 troops go?
They don’t have the solid fortifications at Nanfengkou, and they don’t even have many tanks to cover them. How can they face the Tang army’s attack in this wilderness?
(End of this chapter)