Chapter 811 The fortified formation is indestructible

Chapter 811 The fortified formation is indestructible

Duan Shao moved to Guangling this time. In addition to his own troops, he also took thousands of prisoners of the Liang army who had been defeated in previous battles. Naturally, these prisoners would not be assigned war horses and mounts, which would inevitably slow down the marching speed greatly.

But there was nothing he could do about it. He led his army south this time, carrying only elite light cavalry, and he did not carry much supplies and baggage with him. He fought in various places, and although he had defeated several southern armies with lightning speed, Liang's army, but its own troops were already exhausted, supported by the momentum of successive battles and victories, and were in urgent need of new reinforcements.

Duan Shao also obtained a certain amount of replacement of personnel and materials from Xuyi and Jingzhou that he had previously rescued, as well as some cities occupied by the Northern Qi along the way. However, due to the huge variable of Li Boshan of the Western Wei Dynasty still existing in Huainan, it also caused Duan Shao did not dare to overuse the resources in these cities, lest it be difficult to defend against another attack.

Although these Nanliang divisions are not of great use, driving them forward can also provide early warning of the enemy's whereabouts and attack the enemy's formation. Especially the latter, it is simply too important for his cavalry army, which has no means of attacking fortresses.

When relieving the siege of Xuyi, Duan Shao still relied on his unexpected surprise attack to cause chaos in the enemy's formation, and they pursued him one after another. When he attacked Yan Chaoda's army in Jingzhou, it was because of the defeated soldiers of Nan Liang who rushed forward to disrupt the Liang army's position that he was able to defeat the enemy's formation within a single blow.

Although he defeated Liang Jun one after another, Duan Shao's mood did not improve much. In addition to the huge threat posed by Li Boshan, a powerful enemy, the Liang Army Chen Baxian who was scouting Guangling was still besieging the city and attacking, and did not break the siege and leave. This means that if you want to break the siege of Guangling, you may still have to fight hard.

Duan Shao led his army lightly armed all the way south. Of course he was not afraid of a fierce battle, but this was somewhat different from what he had imagined.

For him, in order to break the siege of Huainan, how many Liang Jun soldiers he killed was not the most important thing. It is impossible for him to wipe out all the Liang troops in Jiangbei, and as long as Liang still has fighting troops, it is inevitable to enter Jiangbei.

What Duan Shao wants to do is not to kill as many enemies as possible, but to destroy Nanliang's popular support in Jiangbei as much as possible.

The reason why Huainan has been in chaos for a long time is not because the Northern Qi Dynasty is not strong. In addition to the Nanliang army repeatedly entering the north of the Tujiang River after quelling Hou Jing's rebellion, there is also the fact that the locals in Huainan do not have high recognition of the rule of the Northern Qi Dynasty. Given the opportunity, those Huainan powerful men wanted to get rid of Northern Qi's control.

Duan Shao knew that today's Nanliang seemed to be a whole, but in fact the internal contradictions and estrangements were very deep. There were many overt and covert fights between generals such as Wang Sengbian and Chen Baxian, and other generals were also very selfish and did not care about their own interests. Gains and losses are far more important than the safety of the country.

Therefore, after defeating several Liang soldiers and horses one after another, he hoped to use this shock to scare away Chen Baxian who was besieging Guangling. It is not that we are timid to fight against him, but that we want the Huainan soldiers and people in Guangling City and other places to recognize the weakness of Liang Jun and withdraw immediately when the situation is not good, without any determination to fight, so as to dissuade these Huainan powerful men from continuing to collude with Liang Jun. The idea of ​​​​causing chaos in his hometown.

When he learned that Chen Baxian's army had not withdrawn and was still maintaining the siege of Guangling, Duan Shao immediately darkened his face. He waved to the people under his command and ordered: "The whole army hastened forward. After defeating the thieves and relieving the siege of Guangling, Let’s go to the city to eat and rest today!”

Although the soldiers were quite tired physically, they were still in high spirits. They felt so good after winning consecutive battles. After hearing Duan Shao's order, they all nodded in agreement, and many soldiers sighed with regret. : "It's a pity that I couldn't fight the traitor Li Boshan. I couldn't test for myself whether he is really brave and invincible."

After hearing this, Duan Shao's eyes flashed. Although Li Boshan had been enemies of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi for many years and had many great victories, Duan Shao never had the chance to fight against him. In fact, he was slightly unconvinced in his heart. , and hope to have the opportunity to fight with it.

It's just that the main army of the country is still accompanying His Majesty the Emperor on the expedition to Rouran, and Duan Shao's first task is to stabilize the current situation in Huainan. The risk of fighting Li Boshan is too high, so it is not advisable to be too aggressive at the moment and avoid powerful enemies. Yu Kou is the real plan.

At this time, under Guangling City, Chen Baxian had also dispatched his troops, distributed battle formations, and was waiting in full formation under Guangling City. Before the enemy troops arrived, Chen Baxian summoned his general Zhou Wenyu and whispered: "Guangling City has been besieged for a long time, and the people are exhausted. But after the reinforcements arrive, I am afraid they will be brave enough to fight back when the time comes." Jingde doesn’t need to engage in a diplomatic battle, he leads his five hundred elite troops to lie within the long siege, and when the enemy comes out of the city to counterattack, he will kill them with crossbows, so that I have no worries!”

After hearing this, Zhou Wenyu quickly accepted the order and immediately selected 500 brave soldiers from his troops to ambush and wait for the battle according to Chen Baxian's instructions.

In addition, Chen Baxian made some other arrangements. Soon he came under the banner of the Chinese army, ordered to open his guard of honor so that all the soldiers in the army could see where he was, and then became quiet. Waiting for the arrival of enemy troops.

In the afternoon, the troops led by Duan Shao also arrived outside Guangling City. When he saw the troops under the city with banners and neat formations, Duan Shao couldn't help but sigh and said: "Chen Baxian is worthy of being a hero of the South. He is really impressive in how he arranges his troops."

After that, he directly ordered: "Drive these Liang soldiers in front of the army forward to disturb the enemy's formation!"

After hearing this, the generals and soldiers naturally had no sympathy for the Liang soldiers. They immediately rode their horses towards the scattered Liang soldiers and waved their whips and swords to drive them forward.

The Liang soldiers had trudged all the way and finally arrived outside Guangling City. They saw that there were still friendly troops of their country lined up here waiting for battle. They thought they had a chance to survive, but they didn't expect to be ruthlessly driven away and killed by the Northern Qi soldiers. So they also summoned up the remaining strength in their bodies and rushed towards the friendly army formation on the opposite side. While running, they were still shouting for help.

At this time, the Liang soldiers in the army formation felt entangled when they saw this scene. Looking at the twisted and pitiful faces of those running, the crossbows that had been opened were slowly lowered.

However, at this moment, the drums in the army announced the counterattack and sounded urgently. Chen Baxian stood under the banner with his sword in hand, frowned slightly and said in a deep voice: "Anyone who enters the battle line will be killed! Those who are afraid and do not attack will be killed!"

In the battle line, the military orders were as strong as a mountain. Under the urgent drum orders, the generals and soldiers also put away their pity and hesitation in their hearts. As soon as a living person broke into the range in front, whether it was a Northern Qi soldier or not, they all pulled the strings and shot.

The captured Liang soldiers had already been disarmed and shot by the strong bows and crossbows, and a large number of them were killed and wounded. The Northern Qi cavalrymen who were advancing in the rear and were about to charge the enemy formation saw this bloody scene, and they couldn't help but feel a little scared. Some Qi soldiers who rushed too far forward were also shot by stray arrows, and the momentum that should have been launched in time was immediately resolved.

Duan Shao frowned upon seeing this. He clamped his legs around the horse's belly and rushed forward with all his might. He pointed the lance in his hand at the enemy formation and shouted, "Charge the enemy's left wing!"

With his order, the soldiers gathered their forces and formed a powerful torrent, charging straight at the enemy's flank.

Because the prisoners were too scattered before, the long-range strike capability of the entire front was weakened. At this time, the enemy suddenly rushed to the left wing, and the hasty long-range counterattack seemed a bit weak. The formation was immediately pierced several times by the enemy's sharp and fierce lances, causing a crack in the originally complete army formation.

However, this crack only existed for a short time, and was blocked by the soldiers in the rear with cowhide shields and fearless death. The Qi soldiers who rushed into the formation were stabbed or hooked by the hook sickle, spears and other weapons in the formation, and several holes with blood gushing out suddenly appeared on both the people and the horses!

After a fierce battle, although the Liang army's formation was constantly torn into gaps, they were quickly filled in time. The entire front line was painted with a shocking blood color, but the army was still as tenacious as before.

Duan Shao even lost hundreds of cavalry and separated a small formation of hundreds of soldiers from the enemy formation. He repeatedly attacked and surrounded the enemy, trying to lure the Liang army to come to the rescue, but the main force of the Liang army remained motionless.

Although the overall casualties of the Liang army were far greater than those of the Qi army, in the end, the Qi army was exhausted. Seeing that it was getting dark, Duan Shao could only order the horn to withdraw the troops for fear that the Liang army would attack the camp at night, and wait for the next battle tomorrow.

Seeing the enemy retreating like a tide, Chen Baxian still did not dare to order to contact the alert. He waited until there was no trace of the enemy in his sight, and then he finally breathed a sigh of relief, and said calmly: "The Qi army is just like this. The former generals were incompetent and became famous. Even if the enemy's momentum is as fierce as the wind, how can it overthrow my Taishan!"

The surrounding soldiers heard this and couldn't help but cheer. Although they were far more injured than the other side in actual combat, this fierce battle also proved that this enemy army was not invincible, and was still a flesh and blood body that human power could resist!

The powerful enemy outside was forced to retreat, and good news came from Changwei. Just when the two sides were fighting fiercely, the city also sent troops to prepare to attack the rear of the Liang army. As a result, they were forced back by the elite soldiers who had been ambushed by Zhou Wenyu, and they fought back all the way to the city gate.

After hearing the news, Chen Baxian paused for a moment, then looked at the dead bodies of the Qi army soldiers who were abandoned in front of the battle line. After a moment's pause, he said, "Carry the dead bodies of these bandits to the front of the city, light a fire and cook, and attack the city overnight!"