On October 7, more than 2,000 outposts of the Chuzhou Army crossed the Fanchuan River on horseback, set up a warning zone, and ordered the able-bodied civilians to cut down trees, build fences, and widen the westward passage through dense forests and swamps.

Li Qi and Cao Ba's soldiers and horses stayed calm in the camp west of Fanchuan River for two days. On the third day, that is, in the early morning of October 9th, cold white mist rolled over the woods and swamps, like a white mist from left to right.

In Wonderland, groups of Liang Jun generals filed out of the camp, like groups of silent and ferocious wild beasts, waiting to devour the enemy's blood. They marched towards the Fanchuan River from the simple mud ridge road through the dense forest.

Before today, everyone thought that Liang Jun, who was at an absolute disadvantage in terms of military strength, would use the dense forests and swamps on the east bank of the Fanchuan River to defend. Unexpectedly, Liang Jun would take the initiative to attack.

The Chuzhou Army established an outpost camp on the beach on the west bank of the Fanchuan River. They quickly noticed the movements of the Liang Army and the horns sounded.

A team of generals put on armor and held bright swords, spears, bows and shields. They either climbed onto the fence wall or left the camp to form a formation in front of the fence wall. After blocking obstacles such as horses and antlers, they used shields and spears to build a formation.

A seemingly impenetrable line of defense.

The outpost camp was built on the river beach, with the calm and cold river behind it.

The floodplain between the river and the woods is very narrow, and the large reeds have been set on fire in advance.

After winter, the Fanchuan River also shrinks to a shallow and narrow river, leaving winding riverbanks on both sides. The narrowest point is only twenty or thirty steps, and the widest point is less than three or four hundred steps deep.

The outpost camp of the Chuzhou Army was built on a relatively open river beach, but almost the front end was surrounded by dense forests to the west of the river beach.

Unexpectedly, Liang Jun would counterattack immediately. The single-layer fence of the outpost camp was quite thin.

However, as the first outpost troops to advance to the west bank of the Fanchuan River, they were naturally the elite of the Chuzhou Army. They faced the counterattack of several groups of Liang Army and did not panic.

The outposts were composed of infantry and cavalry. The infantry formed formations inside and outside the fence wall, while several groups of cavalry quickly galloped out of the simple camp and assembled on the two wings.

Unfortunately, the floodplain on the west bank of the Fanchuan River is still too narrow. Some places seem empty, but everywhere are soft, muddy, and untenable swamps.

In the past two days, thousands of people were driven to the west to cut down trees, but how much space could be opened up before the river floodplain in such a short period of time?

This made the formation of Chuzhou Army's outposts and horses very crowded, with more than a hundred or even three or four hundred people crowded on a small highland; on the other hand, the highlands where formations could be formed within the river beach were relatively scattered.

There are only thin channels connecting each other, and they are also located on the edge of the river floodplain and the dense forest, so they are easily cut off.

Of course, the forward generals of the Chuzhou Army did not have too many worries. In their view, the narrow and complex terrain on the west bank restricted the Liang Army's counterattack even more.

They have blocked several narrow forest roads with fences and walls at the narrow intersections. If Liang Jun can disperse and fight out from the dense forest with complex terrain, what other attack power can he have?

The forward generals of the Chuzhou Army even believed that Liang Jun's attack was just a feint with loud thunder and light rain. They focused their defense mainly on the exits of several forest roads, believing that as long as these openings were blocked, Liang's army would be defeated.

The army's counterattack will soon cease.

Cao Ba and Li Qi each sent out their elite troops to attack. In fact, they had to start two battalions of elite troops first, using small teams as combat units. After they dispersed through the dense forest, they found a suitable open area in front of the enemy's outpost camp before proceeding.

Assemble.

The strongest point of Daliang soldiers and horses is that they are divided into small teams of twenty or thirty people. They still have the ability to fight and act independently, and their adaptability to jungle warfare is much stronger than the Chuzhou army generals imagined.

Although swamps and shallow streams in dense forests are obstacles, they are easier to pass than dense forests in rugged mountains.

Otherwise, the seven or eight miles of dense forests and swamps from Qianfeng Camp to the floodplain on the west bank of the Fanchuan River will become an insurmountable barrier.

At noon, dozens of small groups of Liang Jun bypassed key blockades at several intersections, emerged from the dense forest, and engaged the enemy with crossbows.

The outpost generals of the Chuzhou Army hurriedly adjusted their deployment, mobilized troops and generals, thinking of dividing and annihilating the Liang Army that had infiltrated into the enemy's territory.

For the small team of Liang Jun, they gather when they can. If they can't, they gather at the edge of the dense forest and the river beach. They fight guerrillas with the Chuzhou Army and contain as many of the Chuzhou Army's outposts as possible so that follow-up reinforcements can flow in.

Keep fighting towards the river bank, and will not easily use a small group of troops to fight a bloody battle with an enemy that is several times or even ten times larger than yours.

The outpost soldiers and horses of the Chuzhou Army may be said to be elite. Their armor and equipment, general training, combat experience, morale, and will may not be weak. Compared with the Liang Army, they may be only slightly worse in every aspect.

, but every aspect is slightly worse. When all aspects are added together, the gap is not just one or two points.

More importantly, the Chuzhou Army's outpost troops who entered the west bank of the Fanchuan River were far from expecting that Liang Army's counterattack would be so early, so resolute, and extremely poorly prepared.

First of all, due to the complex terrain of the river beach, the relatively easy-to-travel edge areas near the dense forest were infiltrated and cut off by Liang Jun on a large scale. After being cut off, the Chuzhou Army, which had assembled on the dry highlands deep in the river beach, found themselves on the river beach.

The depth of the ground has not been timely constructed to connect the various formation highlands, and is even divided by water-filled low-lying areas and river bends, making it difficult to mobilize and assemble quickly.

On the other hand, the Chuzhou Army's outpost troops had not yet transported the bed crossbows and other war weapons from the east coast in time.

They originally thought that they would not be able to use these weapons until the troops advanced to Liang Jun's defense fortress.

As more and more Liang troops fought their way out of the dense forest, they gathered into a group of hundreds or even two to three hundred people. The formation became tighter and the front became sharper. They tried to leave the edge area of ​​the dense forest and go to the river beach where the enemy troops were arrayed.

Kill deep into the ground.

The Chuzhou Army soon could not bear the heavy casualties caused by scattered operations, abandoned the outer highlands, and waded back to the narrow camp.

The Chuzhou army retreated back to the camp, thinking of taking a rest before fighting out. However, as more and more Liang troops came out of the dense forest, they soon found that they were suppressed in the camp and no longer had the ability to fight out.

.

After several forest paths were opened, dozens of spring-arm crossbows were dragged from the muddy paths to the edge area between the river floodplain and the dense forest.

The iron-clustered crossbow arrows, which were like short spears, easily penetrated the thin fence wall.

The outpost camp is divided into three fence camps on the left, middle and right. It is more than 700 steps long along the Fanchuan River from north to south, but its depth from east to west is only 200 steps. If a scorpion crossbow is dragged in front of the fence wall, the fire oil can can attack the camp.

Any corner.

At this time, the outpost troops and horses of the Chuzhou Army that entered the west bank could no longer resist and hurriedly withdrew from the two simple pontoon bridges to the east bank.

The Chuzhou Army's camp on the east bank of the Fanchuan River should be more open - after all, starting from early September, the Chuzhou Army ignored Liang Jun's repeated protests and entered the buffer zone on the east bank in advance to prepare for war. The camp built after a month was also

To make it much stronger, the middle of the double-layer fence wall was filled with soil, and a layer of logs was laid on top, so that the soldiers could stand on the fence wall for defense and fighting. There were also more soldiers and horses, with a total of five thousand men and horses.

There are more Chuzhou troops on the east bank, but the camps on the west bank are too narrow and crude, and the soldiers are suppressed in the camps and cannot be killed. Even if there are two pontoon bridges connecting the two sides, no matter how many troops there are on the east bank, there is no way to reinforce them.

West Bank.

We did not want the narrow outpost camp on the west bank to become a massacre for the generals of the Chuzhou Army, so we had to withdraw all the troops first.

The forward generals of the Chuzhou Army did not think that the early defeat was a big deal at this time. They were still thinking of using the camps built on the east bank of the river to revive their declining momentum.

At dusk, Cao Ba rushed to the river camp in person. In addition to corpses on the ground, the fire in the camp had just been extinguished, and there was still a burning smell all around.

The two pontoon bridges were still across the slow-flowing Fanchuan River. The enemy generals did not take the initiative to destroy the two pontoon bridges. They just piled a large number of shield carts on the other sides of the two pontoon bridges to block the horses and prevent them from borrowing horses.

The pontoon rushed directly over.

The enemy general obviously still wanted to use these two pontoon bridges to invade the east bank again.

"Burn the pontoon bridge!" Cao Ba ordered.

"General, rest for the night. We can use these two pontoon bridges to cross the river tomorrow. How can we burn them?" The generals who led the troops to capture the enemy's outpost camp on the river bank today were all anxious and shouted to Cao Ba.

The enemy village on the west bank is almost built next to the water. It will be extremely difficult to rebuild the pontoon bridge from the west bank to the east bank before the enemy village. Who would be willing to set fire to the two existing pontoon bridges?

"When the pontoon bridge is used to cross the river tomorrow and the pontoon is burned, the enemy's guard can be truly relaxed. Zhou Bao and Dong Jiang's two teams will disperse from the north at night and swim across the Fanchuan River, and then pass through the northeastern forest on the other side.

Block the enemy's retreat on the east bank from behind. Within the next three days, we will eat up the enemy's force on the east bank, and let the kings and ministers of Chu State experience the consequences of tearing up the peace agreement first!"

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War is always a comprehensive confrontation and competition between the comprehensive strength of both sides.

The training, morale, and combat experience of generals are of course extremely important, but they are also just a matter of convenient, sophisticated, and comprehensive equipment, as well as sufficient and effective logistical supplies and rapid road and bridge construction capabilities. They are all keys that determine the direction of the war and cannot be ignored.

factor.

Tightly glued waterproof boots are an important guarantee for walking through water-logged dense forests in cold weather.

Although the severe cold season has not yet arrived in the Jianghuai area, when frost occurs late at night, thin ice begins to form on the banks of the gentle streams. At this time, the shoes and socks are filled with ice-cold water, and the legs are numbed by the biting cold.

, definitely not a good feeling.

Although the north entrance of the Fanchuan River to Hongzepu was blocked by the Chuzhou Army and the navy's large and medium-sized warships could not come in to support it, the floating rafts and fusiform light warships used by the navy could even reach shallow waters with a depth of several feet.

These shallow waters are small creeks and canals in dense forests that are not valued by the Chuzhou army and even fishing boats cannot pass smoothly. These floating rafts and fusiform warships can quickly link up hundreds of steps or even dozens of miles in length at the same time.

pontoon.

The Chuzhou Army didn't feel much because the Chuzhou Army had never been the focus of Liang Army's defense and attack, and the ones deployed on the southern front were not the most elite combat forces in Liang.

However, since Han Qian ordered the formation of a special pontoon force, in order to overcome the difficulty of troops passing through the floodplains on both sides of the Yingshui River and raiding the depths of the Dongliang Army, the Liang Army has accumulated a lot of combat experience in these aspects.

Also build a batch of special weapons.

If necessary, two or three floating channels can even be laid across the Fanchuan River in a short period of time and pass through dense forests and swamps on both sides.

Liang Jun took the initiative to burn the pontoon bridge. The Chuzhou Army on the west bank certainly believed that Liang Jun had a guilty conscience and thought that Liang Jun was afraid of their strong military strength. Liang Jun's current main combat intention, which was at an absolute disadvantage in terms of military strength, was to defend the front line of the Fanchuan River.

The winding river channel, dense woods and swamps also served as excellent cover. The Chuzhou army on the west bank did not notice at all that just more than 20 miles to the north of them, a Liang army marched at night with fire across the Fanchuan River.

In the early morning of the next day, two thousand Liang Army soldiers and horses crossed the Fanchuan River, passed through the dense forest, and circled behind the Chuzhou Army on the west bank. Only then did the forward generals realize the Liang Army's determination to annihilate them on the west bank of the Fanchuan River!

The Chuzhou Army still had nearly 10,000 infantry stationed in Dongyang County. When they first discovered that the passage between Dongyang City and the Fanchuan River was cut off, they quickly dispatched a large number of troops and horses, hoping to attack the forward troops on the west bank of the Fanchuan River.

The incoming Liang army was wiped out.

However, they stayed until the afternoon. Cao Ba and Li Qi took the lead and routed nearly 7,000 forward troops of the Chuzhou Army on the east bank of the Fanchuan River. Zhou Bao and Dong Jiang both led more than 2,000 troops.

Like a rock, Liang Jun blocked the passage from Dongyang City to the Fanchuan River.

Nearly 8,000 soldiers and horses were mobilized from Dongyang City and attacked for most of the day, but they were always blocked in the east and could not advance even half an inch, let alone meet up with the forward soldiers and horses on the east bank of the Fanchuan River.

Although the Chuzhou Army had to enter full-scale war mobilization one month in advance, without the direct support of the Chu Ting Center, the materials they could use were still too scarce.

From Dongyang City to the Fanchuan River, the Chuzhou Army only built a highway of more than 20 miles. Outside the highway, there were abandoned villages, dense woods, and fields destroyed by floods, making Dongyang east of the Fanchuan River
To be continued...