Chapter 1101 The flanking exploits

Chapter 1101 The flanking exploits

At dawn, while Gao Yang was still sleeping, soldiers outside his tent suddenly called out to report that the Right Route Army was under enemy attack. After learning about this, Gao Yang immediately lost all sleepiness, stood up in his clothes, and repeatedly asked about the details of the military situation.

The Qi army had strong troops and set up camps along the river. The camps of the middle route army and the left route army were all set up west of the Zhuozhang River and south of the Tongtan River. The right army led by He Baren relied on the plateau wall east of the Zhuozhang River. Set up camp.

Although the location of the right route army is outside the main battlefield, it can still bypass the enemy's main position and continue to advance north. At the same time, it deliberately observes the enemy's layout and movements more intuitively, and can cooperate with the troops on the main battlefield when necessary. Offensive, targeting the enemy's flanks to harass and outflank them.

Since the Right Route Army does not undertake the frontal offensive task, but only provides support on the flanks, the number of troops allocated is not large, with only more than 10,000 combat personnel.

Gao Yang saw the Wei army overhauling the fortifications in his camp last night, and he suspected that the Wei army might withdraw from the battlefield to lure the enemy deeper. He sent someone to remind He Baren to be more vigilant, and at the same time sent 5,000 additional cavalry to strengthen it. Ministry’s combat effectiveness.

The night had not yet ended, and the enemy troops indeed made some changes, but it was not a retreat as Gao Yang had guessed, but an active attack.

Since the sky was still dark at the moment, it was not known exactly how many people and horses the Wei army had crossing the river to attack the camp. However, because He Baren himself had rich combat experience and was reminded by His Majesty the Emperor, he successfully detected early warning of the enemy's attack and made preparations. The counterattack did not allow the enemy's treacherous plan to succeed. At present, the two sides are still at war. While commanding his troops to resist attacking the enemy, He Baren sent people to the Chinese army camp to report the news.

After listening to the report from his subordinates, Gao Yang frowned slightly. For him, the top decision-maker on the battlefield, it doesn't matter whether he is active or passive in the war. However, if he loses his judgment on the enemy's trends, it will be more serious, which will directly affect the choice of subsequent response strategies.

Last night, the enemy army built a lot of fortifications in its position and showed a posture of holding on to the camp. Then it is more reasonable whether it is to hold on or the main force to retreat. Now he is taking the initiative to attack the flank battlefield, which is undoubtedly contradictory to his previous behavior.

And even if the enemy wants to take advantage of yesterday's day's victory and continue to expand its advantage, then it will have to attack the Qi army's left wing where Duan Shao was suppressed before, or the offensive position established by Xue Guyan on the north bank of the Tongda River. , which is enough to reveal the enemy's fighting spirit and aggressiveness.

But today, when he took the risk to launch a night attack, he chose a separate force deployed by the Qi army outside the main battlefield. Even if it was lucky enough to win and seize the position on the east bank of the Zhuozhang River, it would have little impact on the frontal battlefield. big. It is nothing more than depriving the Qi army of a side view to monitor the opponent's movements and disturb the enemy. Is it possible that the Wei army still wants to outflank it because its strength is far inferior to its own?

After thinking about it for a while, Gao Yang still insisted on his previous judgment, believing that the enemy still wanted to leave, and everything he did was just to facilitate this goal. Looking at the Wei army's actions with this line of thinking, we have the answer. It is simply that the existence of the Qi army's right division and brigade posed a great threat to the withdrawal of the main force of the Wei army, so a night attack was launched.

Thinking of this, Gao Yang immediately sent an order to He Baren, telling him to stick to his position and not be driven back by the enemy. As long as he persisted until dawn, reinforcements would naturally come to support him.

At the same time, he sent an order to Xue Guyan in the forward position, and he immediately summoned his troops to prepare to attack the enemy from the frontal battlefield. As for Duan Shao of the Left Route Army, he gave no further instructions.

The most important value of the left army is that it can quickly deploy a large number of cavalry troops in the shallow Tongtan River to attack the enemy's formation. However, yesterday the Wei army's chariot formation greatly restricted the performance of the Qi army's cavalry. South bank of Tongdan River. Moreover, with the closure of the downstream, the water level in the upper reaches of the Tongtan River has risen again, making it even more unsuitable for the cavalry to advance and retreat.

This was also one of the reasons why Gao Yang reduced the troop allocation of the left route army. It was not simply because of the failure of the previous attack that he was angry with Duan Shao.

Although it was still some time before dawn, Gao Yang was no longer sleepy. He ate for a while in the big tent and then put on his military uniform and began to summon the Chinese army divisions and brigades to gather for battle. Accompanied by the sound of drums and horns in the camp summoning divisions and brigades, he walked in the rapidly awakening camp, secretly having a premonition in his heart that a major change would definitely occur on today's battlefield.

As dawn breaks, the soldiers in the Qi army's front camp have been fully equipped and are ready to attack the enemy's position. After yesterday's intimidation and encouragement from Gao Yang, Xue Guyan learned from the pain today, and his mental outlook was completely different from yesterday. After finishing reorganizing his troops, he sent his troops to the rear formation to ask for instructions on when to attack.

At this time, the Chinese army's divisions and brigades were still not fully assembled. Only the 20,000 Forbidden Army officers and soldiers around the big tent had completed their assembly. After receiving Xue Guyan's request, he ordered a tentative attack first, and then sent additional troops and strengthened the offensive as appropriate after passing the enemy's counterattack.

As soon as he gave the order, good news came from the right army. He Baren's troops not only repelled the Wei army that came to attack the camp, but even took advantage of the Wei army's retreat to attack and counterattack all the way to Zhuozhang River. As long as we can take advantage of the situation to seize control of a few pontoon bridges from the enemy's west bank, we can launch combatants in batches towards the opposite bank and launch a fierce attack on the enemy's flank.

"He Ba Yanguo'er is really old and strong, and he actually contributed to our military division brigade first!"

After Gao Yang heard this news, his face immediately lit up with joy, and he couldn't help but clapped his hands and praised him.

At this time, the Qi army had not yet made a major breakthrough on the frontal battlefield. Although Xue Guyan established a position yesterday, the enemy immediately built many offensives on the slope. In addition, the Qi army had the disadvantage of having to attack from above. Only with good posture can you move forward, and it is still very difficult to break through from the front.

But now He Baren actually opened up the situation from the flank and attacked the enemy's flank first. This was naturally surprising. In order to avoid losing this hard-won breakthrough, Gao Yang immediately ordered his confidant Zhao Daode to lead 5,000 elite soldiers of the Forbidden Army to the battlefield on the right, and asked Zhao Daode to tell He Baren that reinforcements would continue in the future and must be consolidated. Take advantage of this and expand upon it.

The breakthrough on the right battlefield immediately greatly increased the Qi army's tactical options. It could not only redirect troops and switch the main attack direction to the right army, but also allow the right army to fully exert its effect of disturbing the enemy. While the enemy was busy responding, they launched a fierce attack on the front, causing them to lose sight of one thing.

Gao Yang has no plans to switch the direction of his main attack for the time being. Firstly, the breakthrough of the right army has not yet been consolidated. Secondly, although he is the Supreme, he also has a thirst for military glory. This is the main way for him to establish authority in the country and increase his control. In particular, He Baren, as the founding father of the country, has profound qualifications. If he is awarded the honor of defeating Li Boshan, it will make him and the Jinyang noble group even more out of control.

Therefore, after sending Zhao Daode for reinforcements, he immediately led other imperial troops to the south bank of the Tongda River, personally supervised the battle and launched a frontal attack on the Wei army.

As all the troops of the Qi army gathered in their positions, and with the roar of war drums, the front division and brigade advanced towards the enemy formation on the opposite side.

There is a distance of nearly three miles from the north bank of the Tongdan River to the top of the plateau where the Wei army's Zhongjun Dazhen is located. The terrain in the southernmost mile or so was relatively flat, and it was close to the Qi army's forward position. The Wei army did not dare to build any offensives nearby. They only built some mounds of earth to cover the crossbowmen's shooting and block the enemy.

However, this level of obstruction was not a big restriction for the well-equipped Qi army. Although many arrows fell into the battle formation, most of them were blocked by the armor and shields, causing minimal casualties. The advancement speed of the military formation was not greatly affected.

What really caused a big obstacle to the Qi army's offensive was the light cavalry troops rushing out from both wings of the enemy formation. These enemy soldiers swooped down and came with great force, often causing considerable casualties to the Qi army.

However, because the scale of the Qi army's previously constructed forward formation was too small, it was difficult to allocate a large number of cavalry in the limited space. Therefore, the cavalry did not appear in the starting lineup. The heavy armored infantry was used to deliver the infantry first. Go to the area where the Wei army's traps and chariot formations are laid out, attack and remove these obstacles, and clear a galloping attack route for the cavalry brigade in the rear.

This process was inevitably accompanied by a large number of casualties. In addition to the harassment of the enemy's light cavalry, as the troops advanced to the vicinity of the enemy's formation, arrows, stone bullets and other objects were constantly thrown out of the enemy's formation, causing extreme damage to the Qi army's battle formation. Big damage.

But as the attacking party, these casualties must be endured. As long as the enemy's solid front shell is torn open, the inside will be full of delicious and delicious military achievements, which can be taken away.

The Wei army did not stop the construction of the battlefield all day yesterday, and after nightfall last night, they carried out a lot of rush repairs. Today, they can be said to be showing their fangs, making the Qi army's offensive not smooth. A large group of men and horses stood in front of the formation, suffering heavy casualties, but the damage caused to the enemy's fortifications was very limited.

This naturally made Gao Yang quite dissatisfied, especially when he saw thick smoke billowing from the side and rear of the enemy's position. You can imagine how fierce the battle there was. At present, the enemy is in a state of being attacked from both sides. As a result, the frontal battlefield offensive is still unhurried, so that the enemy does not feel too much pressure and can still calmly deal with the battles on the two battlefields.

So he gave the order again, asking all the front troops to advance towards the enemy's line. At the same time, he sent more troops to advance north through the embankment, and added them to the front line to continue the attack, so as not to give the enemy a chance to breathe.