novelSusiti Chapter 54 Li Jue VS Li Chongjin
Chapter 54 Li Jue VS Li Chongjin
The heroic act of the soldiers in white armor abandoning their silver to face danger in the training ground not only moved Li Jue, but also moved the tens of thousands of Luzhou folks who were squatting outside the training ground watching.
"Incredible, truly incredible! When did these men become so chivalrous?"
"That's all thanks to Commander Li, General Li. If it were anyone else in command, this wouldn't have happened."
"Stop talking! Our heroes are going out to fight; are we just going to stand by and watch?"
"Let's go! I heard they're loading supplies onto ships at the docks. My family has a boat, originally meant for escaping. But we're not leaving now; we'll live and die with Magistrate Li!"
"Indeed, with Governor Li here, the Northern Army cannot win. Let's go to the docks and warehouses to lend a hand and see if there's anything else we can do to help."
A scene rarely seen even in the past forty years of chaos, or even in the three hundred years before the Great Yu Dynasty, has occurred: the people of Luzhou have launched a fervent campaign to support the front lines.
Merchants and wealthy households donated more than a hundred boats of various sizes that they had hidden away, and fishermen from the surrounding towns also came in droves to Luzhou to register for military service.
The dock wasn't big enough, so everyone dismantled door panels and built a makeshift dock on the riverbank. Fortunately, most of the naval warships didn't return, so the vessels involved in the transport were mostly civilian boats and fishing boats.
These boats are low-slung and have lower requirements for docks, especially fishing boats, which can almost be loaded with cargo by simply placing a plank on the shore.
When there weren't enough people to carry the loads, everyone brought their own carrying poles, baskets, horse-drawn carts, donkey carts, and even oxcarts to help with the transport. Many families didn't have livestock, so they simply pushed their own rickshaws to help with the transport.
The crowd's enthusiasm was so high that Li Jue had to stand on the riverbank and beg everyone to stop transporting the boats, because the boats still needed to carry three thousand newly trained crossbowmen. What would happen to the people if the boats were full?
However, the ubiquitous rickshaws along the dike inspired Li Jue, who publicly requested to buy all the rickshaws in the city, only to be ridiculed by the people of Luzhou. "Heroes risk their lives but refuse to accept money, how can we possibly sell rickshaws?" he thought.
Li Jue's marching route this time mainly followed the riverbanks. Where there were official roads, they followed them; where there were no official roads, they traversed various riverbanks, aiming to create terrain that offered no opportunity for cavalry. This kind of marching route meant that a regular horse-drawn cart or donkey cart was less effective than a simple wheelbarrow.
What's even more ingenious is that almost every household owns a rickshaw, and many people have been pushing them around as children, helping their parents with chores. Therefore, almost every soldier on the expedition was skilled at operating one. A rickshaw loaded with three or four hundred pounds of goods could easily travel forty or fifty miles. If they encountered an uphill section that they couldn't push, they could simply ask others to help pull it from the front.
With the heartfelt wishes of all the people of the city, on the morning of the second day after the former military governor Liu Yanzhen was arrested.
Li Jue led 7,000 militiamen and 3,000 crossbowmen, accompanied by more than 400 boats of various sizes pieced together, and advanced northward along the river.
Three thousand of the crossbowmen, unfamiliar with battle formations and marching, struggled to form ranks and even frequently mistook their own units and officers when boarding the ships, displaying a complete lack of familiarity with everything. Li Jue had no choice but to assign them to guard the fleet on the ships. Fortunately, many of them knew how to operate boats, so they weren't entirely useless.
However, the Desheng Army, which was constantly prepared, well-trained, and had officers of all ranks with rich combat experience, was completely annihilated by Zhou's army.
Could this third-rate army, composed of militia, newly recruited amateur crossbowmen, boatmen, and fishermen, really defeat the pursuing elite cavalry of the Zhou Kingdom and successfully reach their destination, Mount Bagong?
-----------------
From the time Liu Yanzhen fled back to Luzhou until Li Jue led his troops north to pursue Liu Yanzhen, what were Li Chongjin's troops doing? They were resting their horses.
Previously, due to an urgent military order, they spared no effort, with one person riding two horses at full speed to reinforce the front line. In order to achieve the element of surprise in the battle, they detoured upstream for a hundred miles and, disregarding their fatigue, quickly crossed the river that night.
That wasn't the end of it. Within two days, they marched another hundred miles to reach the battlefield and delivered a fatal blow to the main force of the Desheng Army at the most critical moment.
Such a short period of high-intensity marching and fighting brought two problems. One was that the men and horses were exhausted, and a large number of horses died. The military operation to pursue Liu Yanzhen failed after only two days because if they continued to run, the Iron Cavalry would become a barefoot army.
The second problem was that the soldiers' anger and resentment urgently needed to be vented. They had come from afar to serve as officials, only for wealth; they hadn't come to Huainan to do charity, having traveled thousands of miles, traversing mountains and rivers to charge into battle.
Besides the honors and rewards bestowed by the imperial court, they also needed to reward themselves, believing that self-reliance leads to abundance. Even a highly respected commander like Li Chongjin dared not disobey the army's will when his men suffered greatly.
So, without Guo Rong and Zhao Quanzhong's expectations, Li Chongjin's 10,000 cavalrymen, instead of heading to Luzhou (actually, they had lost track of the routed army and were disoriented), were instead extorting grain and money from nearby counties.
The cavalrymen kicked open the gates of villages and communities amidst their laughter, taking away the villagers' livestock and poultry, not even sparing the dogs. When they got into the mood, they would even seize groups of women, stringing them together like gourds and leading them away.
"Mommy, I want my mommy..."
"Sister, give me back my sister..."
"My dear brother-in-law, from now on I'm your brother-in-law."
"My dear brother-in-law, from now on we're all your brothers-in-law, hahaha! We're taking your sister with us, no need to see her off. We'll give you a whole bunch of little nephews in a while, consider it a return gift from your family."
The triumphant cavalry always left behind a scene of utter devastation.
It is commendable that Li Chongjin's cavalry did not commit a massacre, and Guo Rong's ban on slaughter issued before the expedition still had a deterrent effect. In addition to massacres and burning houses, sporadic killings, looting, extortion, and even kidnapping occurred frequently.
Li Chongjin turned a blind eye to this. To motivate soldiers, you have to reward them. If benevolence could win wars, then monks would be the ones ruling the country.
"Damn it, the winter in Huainan is viciously cold, chilling to the bone. I've fought in Hebei and Hedong, and I've never seen it this cold in November." That day, Li Chongjin was waiting for the army that had gone out to collect grain to return, and he was warming himself by the fire while complaining.
As he complained, two scouts hurried back from afar. Li Chongjin heard the sound of hooves and quickly got up to check. He immediately noticed their anxious and excited expressions and was overjoyed, finally having something to do.
Although Li Chongjin didn't know the way to Luzhou, he knew that if the Yu Kingdom wanted to support Shouzhou from the west, they would definitely take the Feishui route. He only needed to stay nearby and wait for the Yu army to pass through the Feishui and head north, then he could lead his cavalry to follow and seize the opportunity. Heaven was on his side; a deal came knocking.
Li Chongjin couldn't wait to jump up from under the tree and hurriedly walked towards the scouts.
The scouts immediately dismounted and bowed to Li Chongjin to report:
"Commander, we have discovered a strange army on the official road by the Fei River. They have few horses and no carriages; instead, a large group of people wearing strange white armor are pushing rooster carts along the way."
We risked going forward for a closer look and saw that they appeared to be wearing paper armor. In addition, there were hundreds of boats of various sizes on the Fei River, but from our observation, they all seemed to be civilian vessels, varying greatly in size and shape.
Li Chongjin laughed loudly, "Paper armor? Civilian ships? Chicken carts? Hahaha, the Southern Dynasty is desperate, the Southerners have run out of tricks. They're even sending these worthless scumbags to their deaths. I thought after waiting so many days, there would be some good meat to eat. Tell me, how many Southern troops are there?"
The scout was a veteran with extensive experience. He confidently reported to Li Chongjin, "There are about six or seven thousand men, but no more than ten thousand. They are all infantry, with very few cavalry scouts."
Upon hearing this, Li Chongjin found it absurd: "Their main force of the garrison has been completely annihilated, yet they still dare to send such a bunch of lousy soldiers to their deaths. Oh dear, even I, the commander, feel a little sorry for them. Order all troops to assemble, come and get them!"
Li Chongjin's personal guard advised, "General, the horses haven't fully recovered yet. They need to rest for a while before we can use them again."
Li Chongjin said nonchalantly:
"What are you afraid of? If it were the regular army of the Southern Dynasty before, I would listen to you. But now they are just a bunch of rotten trash. I estimate that these paper soldiers are a motley crew hastily put together by the Southern Dynasty's local militia or garrison troops in Jiangbei. Dealing with them won't be a big deal and won't affect the horses' rest."
"Just you wait and see, one simple charge, and we've won. They still have plenty of supplies; we can take them to feed our brothers and our horses—a win-win situation. Alright, alright, go and relay the orders. We're cavalry; we can always escape, no matter what."
Because his subordinates had scattered in all directions, wreaking havoc and causing havoc, it was difficult to quickly notify and regroup them. A full hour later, the Zhou cavalry soldiers who had gone out to "do their business" finally returned one after another. When they learned that another Yu army had come to their deaths, they burst into laughter.
Amidst laughter, Li Chongjin mounted his horse, raised the commander's flag symbolizing his status, waved it in a circle before the army, and said, "Brothers, the Southern Dynasty hasn't submitted yet. Follow me, and I'll teach them a lesson. How should one fight in this world? How should one act like a coward? Hahahaha!"
The army set off swiftly in a joyful atmosphere, rapidly approaching the direction of the Yu Kingdom's army.
-----------------
Along the official road by the river, Li Jue, dressed in paper armor, was marching with the others. He was not a professional military officer and had no idea how to allocate physical strength and rest time during marches and battles. Fortunately, there were many retired officers from front-line troops in the militia, who were very familiar with normal marching and combat procedures and flag and drum commands.
All Li Jue could do was follow behind them on foot, also clad in paper armor. Firstly, to personally experience the hardships of marching; only through genuine hardship could one truly learn new things. Secondly, to conserve horses. Thanks to Liu Yanzhen, the military horses in Luzhou City had been completely squandered; Li Jue had only managed to find a little over a hundred horses for this expedition, all of which were assigned to the scouts.
Just as Li Jue was worrying about the future of his army, a group of scouts found him.
The scout captain reported, "My lord, we found a pile of horse manure fifteen li away. Judging from the hoofprints and the freshness of the manure, it is likely an enemy scout who has been gone for almost a quarter of an hour."
Li Jue asked the veteran officer beside him, "How far away are the Northern Army scouts from the main force?"
The veteran officer had fought alongside several emperors of the Northern Dynasties and was intimately familiar with the Northern army's tactics. He replied, "Your Excellency, the distance between the main army and the cavalry is generally between fifty and seventy li. If a quarter of an hour has already passed, and the Northern army is composed of cavalry, we may have less than a quarter of an hour left."
Li Jue was greatly alarmed upon hearing this and immediately said, "Are there any strategically advantageous defensive positions nearby? We don't have time."
The veteran officers, though alarmed, remained calm and advised, "Since ancient times, the way to deal with cavalry is to first occupy the high ground. This area is all riverbed, with no high or low ground. We should go to the farmland and use the ridges and soft soil to meet the enemy, but the soil in this season is probably..."
Li Jue shook his head and said, "It's freezing cold in November, and the fields aren't very soft. I understand. Let's go to Xiangshui Beach ahead. In winter, the water level is low, and the area near the official road is a stretch of soft river mud. Although it's frozen a bit in November, it hasn't penetrated deep into the soil. The soil is hard on top and soft underneath, and cavalry charging in there would definitely suffer losses."
Beyond the river mud lies the sand and gravel area, and only beyond that is the river itself. We will deploy our forces with our backs to the river, occupying the gravel area, using the river mud to slow down the enemy, and using wheelbarrows as obstacles. As long as the Northern cavalry cannot gain speed, we have a plan.”
The veteran officers were just a little inflexible; once Li Jue explained the benefits, their eyes immediately lit up.
The messenger quickly mounted his warhorse and announced to the entire army: "The Northern army is approaching. Speed up the march and take Xiangshuitan within a quarter of an hour."
The soldiers who had previously been boasting immediately became serious. One person pushed the cart, while two or three others helped pull it from the front. The cart, loaded with three or four hundred pounds of goods, was propelled forward by groups of three or four. The entire army advanced towards Xiangshuitan like madmen.
Upon arriving at Xiangshuitan, the militia soldiers, under the command of their officers, remained calm and worked together, with some on guard duty and others cutting down reeds in the nearby reed beds.
The veteran officers busied themselves in instructing the younger officers on how to maneuver the rickshaws into a long but not completely blocked defensive line. The goal was to effectively block the charge of warhorses while also leaving passage for their own infantry to launch attacks.
The warriors of the War Vanguard are inspecting their flails, pitchforks, sickles, and spears, conducting final drills to ensure their proper functioning.
When the cavalry approaches, the spearmen will slow them down, the scythe-wielding spearmen and steel forks will restrain the enemy, and the warriors wielding long flail-wielding spearmen will smash the cavalry into a pulp through their armor, just like smashing bean husks back home.
The army was busy, and the fleet on the water was not idle either.
Li Jue ordered his men to use flag signals, and a naval officer arrived at the shore in a small fishing boat.
Li Jue drew a map of Xiangshuitan on the ground and pointed to the inlets on the side of Xiangshuitan, saying to him:
"The enemy will attack our formation soon. Our troops are in high spirits and will surely fight them to a standstill. Your mission is to take three thousand crossbowmen in light, fast boats into the harbor to hide and find a favorable landing position."
Appear to their flanks and rear. Once you unleash a volley of crossbow bolts, we will retaliate with all our might. Together, we will defeat them. Old Wang, you lead the crossbowmen; when to attack is entirely up to you.
An old officer who was blind in one eye clasped his hands and said, "Please rest assured, Commander, although I only have one eye, I can see things perfectly." After saying that, he followed the naval officer onto the ship and headed straight for the fleet.
After assigning tasks to various groups, Li Jue felt as if a tremendous burden had been lifted. He had done everything he could, and no one knew how the battle would turn out.
However, somewhat embarrassingly, the militia arrived at Xiangshuitan in a quarter of an hour and set up defensive fortifications in two quarters of an hour. Yet, the enemy still did not arrive.
It was freezing cold, with thousands of people gathered on the riverbank in the dead of winter, exposed to the northwest wind. Especially since the riverbed was exposed during the dry season, it was noticeably damp, and staying there for too long could easily lead to illness.
Li Jue sensed the atmosphere in the army formation and summoned two men who comically lifted him up. Sure enough, the soldiers looked at Li Jue with curiosity, wanting to hear what he had to say.
With thousands of people present, Li Jue's words were destined to travel far. To ensure everyone understood his meaning, he stated succinctly: "There's a goldmine behind us; no one can escape. The only way to survive today is to fight forward. Win, and you'll live!"
Li Jue's words were relayed from one junior officer to another, and the soldiers' morale was indeed stirred. Forming a battle formation with one's back to the river is a major taboo in military strategy. But that's a taboo for others. For this legion determined to sacrifice themselves for righteousness, forming a battle formation with their backs to the river was exactly what they wanted; those who feared death wouldn't have come.
Soon, led by an older officer, the soldiers responded with shouts of "Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The biting early winter winds ravaged the soldiers' faces, skin, and spines. But their fighting spirit and will were not extinguished by this ravages; instead, they burned like wildfire in spring, growing ever stronger and spreading like wildfire.
As this spark ignited the heavens, on the distant horizon, the dense array of Zhou army battle flags began to reveal their murderous intent.
First came the battle flags, then the plumes on the cavalry helmets, and then tens of thousands of knights in red robes and black armor surged out from below the horizon like a giant black and red wave, sweeping towards the riverbank.
Two miles away, Li Chongjin stopped his horse to observe for a moment, then laughed loudly, "Men, did you all see that? What a ridiculous group! They don't even have a single piece of armor, just wearing paper clothes and daring to come out to their deaths. They think they can outdo us in ruthlessness by cutting off their retreat with their backs to the river. Isn't that hilarious?"
Whether it was funny or not, at first only a few of the tens of thousands of Zhou army cavalrymen laughed, but gradually, more and more people joined in, and the laughter grew louder and louder. On this sunny, chilly morning, they spared no effort in mocking their pitiful opponent.
If making gestures and showing off one's toughness could influence the course of a battle, what would be the point of such arduous training and superior equipment? Strength determines everything. These fancy moves and posturing are nothing but the pointless whining of intellectuals.
Despite the laughter, Li Chongjin skillfully deployed his troops, recognizing that cavalry had a wider attack range than infantry. Therefore, Li Chongjin divided his ten thousand cavalry into ten formations, each with a thousand men, attacking in waves.
The key to this tactic is that if the previous attack fails, the cavalry will not linger and will turn away to make room for the next wave of attack. The cavalry that have completed their attack mission will return to the rear to regroup and prepare for the next wave of attack.
The attacked party will only feel that the attack is endless. No matter how powerful you are, there will eventually be a moment when you will be unable to resist due to exhaustion and mental collapse.
This tactic is not unusual; it may have been used for over a thousand years. Its effectiveness stems from its classic nature. Today, Li Chongjin will use this fundamental tactic to teach the Yu army a lesson in what true northern elite cavalry is all about.