I

  Chapter 545 542 [Hero]

   "Commander, General Zhang, the enemy is ready to cross the river!"

   "All the ministries stand firm, and the cavalry follow me to stop the enemy! On the Tongguan side, issue an order to let Liu Xiyao go out and attack!"

   Tian Jianxiu personally led the cavalry on the north bank of the Yellow River, running east along the river bank.

  The weather is clear and sunny.

  The Datong army on the south bank is swaggering across the river.

   Although Cao Cao won the battle of Tongguan, it was actually a tragic victory, with the loss of more than 10,000 troops. Moreover, the casualties basically occurred during the three river crossings.

  The first time he smuggled across the Yellow River, he was discovered by Ma Chao after only halfway through, and he led his cavalry out.

  A large number of livestock and peasants, including Cao Cao himself, had not had time to cross the river, and were bitten by the tails of Ma Chao's cavalry.

  Now, the Datong army directly builds fortifications, leaving 4,000 people to defend at all times, lest the Dashun defenders break out from Tongguan and repeat the mistakes of Cao Cao when he crossed the river.

  The main force is divided into several sections to rush across at the same time.

   Liu Xiyao, who was guarding Tongguan, saw the waving command flags on the other side, and immediately led three thousand elite soldiers and two thousand miscellaneous soldiers towards the fortifications of the Datong Army on the south bank.

   Moreover, Liu Xiyao came out from the south gate, where there were all high earth beams, and it was impossible for the Datong army to build fortifications.

  The Datong army wanted to cross the river and bypass Tongguan, and the defenders of Tongguan also bypassed the concrete wall of the Datong army from the earth beam.

   "The bandits are coming from the south!"

  In the hot air balloon, the Datong sentry waving flags, and the observers on the ground shouted.

   "Dragoons abandon their horses, follow me to stop them!"

  Cao Bianjiao dismounted from his horse, led 2,500 dragoons, and climbed up a ten-meter-high earth beam along the gully washed out by the rain. In some places, the height of the earth beams even exceeds 20 meters.

  After Cao Bianjiao led his troops to climb up, Liu Xiyao's troops were only tens of meters away.

  Cao Bianjiao said to the messenger: "Occupy the high ground, form a formation and fire the guns. Tell the friendly troops below to keep them still and just guard the fortifications to prevent the enemy from coming to Tongguan!"

  This is a typical Loess Plateau terrain, with vertical and horizontal earth beams, undulating heights, and gullies washed out by rain.

  After abandoning their horses, the dragoons stood guard on an earth beam, waiting for Liu Xiyao to come and attack.

   "Three-sided copy!"

  Liu Xiyao's troops came to the ravine and dispersed into three groups to encircle and climb.

  Cao Bianjiao shouted: "Commander Shi Zhang, spread the fire!"

   "Bang bang bang!"

  The dragoons looked down and fired at the enemy in the ditch.

  Now, the dragoons of more than a dozen divisions have all been replaced with flintlock guns. As for the infantry, about half of them were re-equipped, and the newly formed divisions still used the obsolete matchlock guns.

  Due to climbing the earth beams, the Dashun army was out of formation when attacking, and scattered into east and west, and the Datong army also scattered into more than ten groups and fired.

  Liu Xiyao's elite soldiers are all wearing cotton armor, and because they are far away, they can still hold bullets.

   But he still has 2,000 miscellaneous soldiers, who have only trained for three months and only wear leather armor. After more than a dozen people were shot in a row, a group of miscellaneous soldiers collapsed immediately, turned around and wanted to flee the battlefield.

   "Choose anyone who escapes!"

   "Boys, follow me to kill the enemy!"

  The law enforcement team killed more than 20 people, and the miscellaneous soldiers finally stopped fleeing. Liu Xiyao simply took off his armor, stepped forward with his shirtless shoulders and knife in hand, and led his elite troops to attack desperately.

   The mountain ridges on the Loess Plateau can't be climbed anywhere, only relatively less steep ones.

  At this time, wearing armor is cumbersome, and bullets will pierce you anyway if you get close.

   "Bang bang bang!"

   Three of Liu Xiyao's personal soldiers fell down one after another, and this person was still struggling to climb. He was indeed a titan from Li Zicheng's old camp.

  Suddenly, there was a shout of killing from the bank, but it was Liu Tichun who led the troops out of the customs and attacked the fortifications of the Datong Army from the front.

  The main force of the Datong Army is crossing the river in sections. Once it fails here, this army will be finished.

   "General, we can't attack, we can only be beaten!" The soldiers shouted from behind the mound.

  Liu Xiyao was also lying on his stomach to dodge, roaring: "If you don't try your best at this time, Tongguan will be gone, and then you won't be able to fight if you want to! Listen carefully to the sound of gunfire, and charge with me!"

Liu Xiyao sent a group of miscellaneous soldiers to attack first, and when the gunfire was the most intensive, he suddenly stood up and charged: "Let's charge together while they are changing their medicine! Archers, shoot upwards! Firecrackers, also attack!" Hit from above!"

  Although the Datong Army was in groups of ten and fired in turn, facing a wave of offensives, they would inevitably fire most of the bullets.

  Liu Xiyao saw the right timing, stepped on the corpses of many miscellaneous soldiers, and rushed to a place only four or five meters away from the top of the beam.

   "Bang bang bang!"

   Sparse gunshots rang out, and a few of Liu Xiyao's personal soldiers fell down, and more than a dozen elite soldiers behind him also fell down.

  But Liu Xiyao was still charging, he was shot in the right shoulder and could only hold the knife in his left hand.

   "Sure enough, a brave man!"

  Cao Bianjiao had been directing the battle, and at this moment he finally picked up the gun and pulled the trigger towards Liu Xiyao.

  A distance of a few meters, if you can’t hit it, Cao Bianjiao can go home to retire.

"boom!"

  Liu Xiyao finally fell, and the nearest Datong army was only three meters away.

  Until he died, Liu Xiyao didn't understand why the firecrackers of the Datong Army reloaded so quickly.

   "The general is dead!"

  The Dashun army all collapsed and ran towards Tongguan.

  Cao Bianjiao shouted: "The whole army pursues!"

  This kind of broken terrain is not easy to chase. It keeps climbing up the mountain ridge and then running into the ravine.

  Many defeated soldiers panicked and no longer ran towards Tongguan, but went south along the mountain ridge, where there were all steep mountains.

   Along the way, there were broken soldiers kneeling and surrendering, but there were still about 2,000 broken soldiers who managed to escape back to the south of Tongguan. The door was closed and opened, and the defeated soldiers entered, but Cao Bianjiao did not dare to chase in.

  Because there is an urn city here, if you chase it in, you will be caught in the urn.

  Cao Bianjiao sent out some people to receive the surrendered troops, and then led the troops to the north, intending to flank Liu Tichun's troops back and forth.

  Unfortunately, it was still too late. Liu Tichun was unable to break through the fortifications, and had already withdrawn his troops back to Tongguan.

  The battles that broke out between the fortifications and the earth beams killed more than 400 enemies and captured more than 1,300 enemy troops. The casualties of the Datong Army were negligible. One person was killed by firecrackers, and several people were injured by bows and arrows. There are also a few unlucky ones who sprained their feet while chasing the rout, and one of them actually broke his leg.

   Frontal battlefield.

  Sheepskins are blown up one by one, tied to a wooden frame to form a sheepskin raft, which has been a popular tool for crossing rivers since the Han Dynasty.

   Merchants even used sheepskin rafts to transport goods across the Yellow River.

   Eight Datong troops went down the river on a sheepskin raft. Two melee soldiers were in charge of paddling, two melee soldiers were in charge of raising shields, and four musketeers squatted halfway, aiming their guns at the opposite bank.

  The current was turbulent, and while the sheepskin raft was approaching the north bank, it was also quickly washed downstream.

   Tian Jianxiu deployed many archers and musketeers along the coast, and even set up a few artillery pieces, all of which were city defense artillery removed from Tongguan.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  The sound of the cannon sounded, and whether it could hit or not was entirely a matter of fate. Because even the Datong army in the river couldn't control the sheepskin raft and was being rushed downstream all the time.

   "Boom!"

  The thirteenth shell of the Dashun Army finally hit the first target.

  The iron bullet concentrated on a sheepskin bag and failed to explode, but the huge impact force knocked over the sheepskin raft. The eight Datong troops all fell into the river. With the ups and downs of the rushing river, whether they can swim back to the bank depends on God's will.

  Tian Jianxiu led the cavalry to chase along the river, and chased them for more than half a mile. A few Datong troops entered the range of bows and arrows.

   "Get off your horse and shoot an arrow!"

  They all use step bows, so that they can shoot farther.

   "Shhhhhh!"

   "Bang bang bang!"

  Arrows and bullets flew back and forth over the Yellow River, and unfortunately people on both sides were hit.

  As the deputy division commander, Wang Hui personally carried out the task of crossing the river. Crossing the river is only the first step, and the next step is to gain a firm foothold on the north bank and receive more friendly troops to land smoothly.

  In the rushing Yellow River, he could not command the army, only the seven people around him.

   "Paddle quickly, don't look at the opposite side!"

  Wang Hui raised his shield and shouted, and then said to the firecracker soldiers: "Aim at me, and hit me hard!"

  A turbulent current hit, the sheepskin raft turned half a circle, not only could not aim, the raft even almost turned over.

"what!"

"Help!"

   "Give me a hand!"

  More than 20 meters away from Wang Hui, a sheepskin raft capsized. They were not attacked, but they lost their balance and fell into the water.

   "Get on the horse and keep chasing!"

  After dismounting and shooting arrows, the Datong army floated far away again, and Tian Jianxiu chased after him again on horseback.

  The infantry of the Dashun Army also carried various weapons and ran along the river chasing the sheepskin rafts.

  The nearest sheepskin raft was more than ten meters away from the north shore, and there were only six people left on the raft. So far, the operation of crossing the river has just begun, and the Datong Army has lost more than 30 soldiers!

  Finally, the sheepskin raft docked, and Tian Jianxiu's cavalry rushed over.

  The soldiers of Datong, who were not firmly established, quickly formed an formation on the shore. Three melee soldiers stood in front, and three musketeers fired at the cavalry. Six of them faced more than 2,000 cavalry.

  Shichang had already fallen into the river, Wuchang held up his spear and roared with red eyes: "Plow the fields and eat, and the world will be united!"

   "Plow the fields and eat, and the world will be in harmony!"

  Six people shouted in unison, seeing death as home.

   "Bang bang bang!"

  Three firecrackers fired in salvo, hitting an enemy cavalry.

  The enemy's bows and arrows also shot. All six people were hit by arrows, and the most had seven arrows stuck in their body.

  After a round of bow and arrow, there were still two people who did not fall down.

  They didn't reload the ammunition, but picked up the shields and spears of the melee soldiers, and defended their landing positions back to back.

   "Shoot the arrow!"

   There was another rain of arrows, and the two finally died.

  Tian Jianxiu said with emotion: "They are all good guys, what a pity."

   "Commander, there is another raft crossing the river!"

"Chase!"

   Tian Jianxiu roared.

   One after another, more than 20 sheepskin rafts that successfully crossed the river, carrying more than a hundred Datong soldiers, were besieged and killed by the enemy as soon as they landed.

  However, there are too many Datong troops crossing the river, and the banks of the Yellow River are too long. There are always places that Tian Jianxiu can't take care of.

   "Arrange formations, raise flags, and blow trumpets!"

  Wang Hui also crossed the river, and the nearest enemy army to him was two hundred Dashun infantry dozens of meters away.

   "Dud beep beep da da~~~~"

  Suona blew the rallying horn, and the Datong soldiers who went ashore desperately moved towards this place. The Datong army in the river also rowed as far as possible to this side, where they wanted to form a real position.

  (end of this chapter)