12dz Chapter 283 Seeking to Survive
Chapter 283 Seeking to Survive
This time, the entire army was mobilized, with superior weaponry and twice the number of enemy soldiers. Moreover, the enemy soldiers' morale had plummeted due to the loss of Xichuan Fort. After the cavalry crossed the river, they were not driven back but instead firmly held on the south bank, allowing the continuous cavalry to successfully charge across.
The logistics team mobilized nearly 2 engineers to construct pontoon bridges at three relatively narrow sections of the river. Despite heavy crossbow fire from the soldiers on the shore, and at the cost of over 1000 casualties, they successfully built more than ten pontoon bridges.
Due to insufficient manpower, the Wuxi Flying Soldiers were unable to stop the trend of the number of Chinese soldiers building pontoon bridges from continuing to expand. Chinese soldiers crossed the Xichuan River in an endless stream and formed square formations on the south bank to cover the engineers in building more pontoon bridges.
After two hours of heavy casualties in the crossing operation, Ma Chao of the 3rd Brigade of the 113th Division took the lead in breaking through the Wuxi Flying Soldiers' defenses at the second crossing point, and rushed into the enemy camp to burn and kill. More than 10,000 remaining enemy soldiers abandoned their armor and fled south.
After capturing the second crossing point, Ma Chao led 10,000 cavalry across the river and charged along the riverbank toward the enemy's main camp, clearing out several hundred Wuxi Flying Soldiers who were shooting at soldiers who were trying to stop them from crossing the river.
Ten thousand cavalry charged into the Wuxi Flying Soldiers' main camp from the flank, rampaging and crashing through the enemy lines. The garrison commander, seeing his life in danger, threw down his weapon and surrendered first, causing the main camp to collapse instantly. Another ten thousand cavalry, who were attempting to cross the river at the third crossing point, rushed ashore with the defeated troops, capturing more than ten thousand Wuxi Flying Soldiers. Several thousand others also fled south.
Like a domino effect, after Ma Chao breached one point of the Wuxi Flying Soldiers' southern bank defense line, the collapse began to spread slowly. More and more soldiers threw down their weapons and fled, and those who could not escape simply knelt down and surrendered in order to save their lives.
Seeing that defeat was inevitable, Palau led several thousand cavalry and soldiers in a retreat amidst the chaos to join Chen Er's siege force.
At 6 p.m., before Chen Er's siege force had captured Xichuan Fort, the northern defense line along the Xichuan River had already collapsed. More than 100,000 Chinese soldiers who had crossed the river pursued the defeated enemy and caught up with Chen Er in less than half an hour.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Chen Er led his troops westward at Palau's urging, but Ma Chao, who had a premonition, blocked their way in advance.
The Wuxi Flying Soldiers, numbering over 100,000, including Chen Er, were surrounded by 250,000 Hua soldiers. The fighting lasted until late at night before Chen Er and many of his generals were finally killed. The 100,000 ordinary soldiers of the Wuxi Flying Soldiers were exhausted and surrendered.
Palau, Chen Er's apprentice who had set up a fire attack to ambush Guan Yu, was killed on the spot by Guan Yu, who was eager for revenge, along with his horse. This finally avenged the fire in Gilusen.
In this battle, Gao Shunli, the commander of the Northern Route Army of the Central Asian Expeditionary Force of the Chinese Empire, took advantage of the enemy soldier Gilusen's underestimation of his own troop strength after the fire attack. He sent the Guan Yu cavalry brigade, which had escaped death, to secretly detour around the Bisak Mountains and launch a surprise attack from the rear, capturing Xichuan Fort, a key northern town of the Wuxi Flying Army, thus blocking Chen Er's route to retreat south.
Taking advantage of the situation, Gao Shun's main force crossed the Xichuan River and, together with Guan Yu's troops, launched a pincer attack, killing more than ten generals including Chen Er, inflicting over 50,000 casualties, and capturing over 100,000. Only about 30,000 Wuxi Flying Soldiers managed to escape. The Hua army suffered fewer than 20,000 casualties, a resounding victory. With no more capable troops or generals to fight in the north, Gao Shun's main force could advance unimpeded, reaching the Wuxi Flying Soldiers' capital, Atar.
On March 4, Zhao Yun's vanguard, led by Zhang Fei, the 3rd Cavalry Brigade of the 133rd Division, departed from Guishan City and entered the western province of Dayuan, where they encountered trouble at Kemuzi Mountain.
Ahead lies the entrance to the Kemuzi Gorge, with 20,000 Dayuan soldiers on the steep mountains on both sides. After being discovered by scouts, they openly waved their flags and shouted on the mountain, mocking Zhang Fei for being too cowardly to take the road.
Zhang Fei was certainly not a coward. If he were alone, he would have charged forward on horseback. With his skills, he was confident that he would not be killed by a few rolling logs and stones from the enemy soldiers.
However, his mission wasn't just to charge forward alone; he had to lead the entire vanguard and annihilate the 20,000-strong Dayuan army. The vanguard's task was to clear obstacles for the main force, eliminate scattered Dayuan soldiers along the way, and find an easy and undisturbed route for Zhao Yun.
After charging into the canyon, dozens of soldiers were killed or wounded by the rain of falling logs and rocks from the cliffs, forcing them to retreat. They attempted to eliminate the 20,000 enemy soldiers on the mountain first. However, the mountain path was steep, and their forces were mostly cavalry. Two attacks failed, resulting in nearly a hundred more casualties. Zhang Fei and several regimental commanders stood a few hundred meters outside the canyon, discussing how to eliminate the 20,000 guards on the mountain.
"Why don't we just skip this route? There are 20,000 people on the mountain who can't get us through just by throwing stones!" Yu Digen, the commander of the 2nd Regiment, said, seeing Zhang Fei's pained expression as he struggled to think but came up with nothing.
The regimental commander, Xi Yi, looked at the bandit leader, who came from the Yellow Turbans, with disdain and said scornfully, "There is no road nearby that goes through the Kemuzi Mountains. Where else can we go if we don't go here? Are we supposed to spend dozens of days going around to the south?"
"Stop your sarcastic remarks, you bastard! If there's no road, can't we build one? What's the purpose of the engineering corps? It's for these kinds of things!" Yu Digen knew he came from a poor background and was often met with hostility from Xi Yi, who came from a wealthy family, so his words were equally sharp.
"Are you out of your mind? The Kemuzi Mountains are high and densely forested, stretching from north to south and dozens of miles wide from east to west. How many months do you plan to take to carve out another mountain road?"
Xi Yi's contempt for Yu Digen grew even stronger upon hearing his explanation. This Yu Digen was utterly useless except for his martial arts skills and brute strength. If it weren't for his advanced age and seniority, and his early surrender to the Crown Prince, he wouldn't be a regimental commander now. The dozens of personal guards in the distance, already aware of the feud between the two commanders, secretly chuckled as they watched them begin their rivalry again.
Yu Digen was persuaded to surrender to the Crown Prince Liu Xie by an intelligence agent less than half a year after the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, and the Crown Prince seized leadership of his organization. In fact, he had been a follower of the Crown Prince for more than 20 years. Although he was not very capable and held a low position, he was senior enough to drink, chat and joke with people like Zhao Yun and Lü Bu.
Xi Yi, on the other hand, came from a wealthy family. His father had served as the governor of Guangyang. He was learned from a young age and well-versed in poetry and literature. Although more and more students are graduating from the new-style military academy, they are still young and inexperienced. Compared to the millions of soldiers across the country, their numbers are pitifully small.
Therefore, generals like Xi Yi, who came from wealthy and well-educated families, were the mainstream among soldiers today. Taking the Third Cavalry Brigade as an example, apart from Yu Digen, who came from a poor background, Zhang Fei, Xi Yi, Cao Zhen, and several battalion commanders all came from such wealthy families.