webnovelfull Chapter 433 Qi River
Chapter 433 Qi River
The Yan army marched south in a mighty force and captured a county town of Qi almost without bloodshed.
This county town is the county town of Heqi County and the only county town north of the Qi River.
According to intelligence, the more than 10,000 Qi troops originally stationed at Xingyang Pass have all retreated to Heqi County in the south.
Most of the territory of Heqi County is located south of the Qi River, including the county seat.
If you want to get across, you have to build a bridge.
Fortunately, the Qi River is not too wide, only three meters wide.
This is an inland river. If you want to take a detour, run east for a hundred miles and the river will disappear. You can just go around it.
But it will take several days on the road.
The county seat of Heqi County was built on the south side of the Qi River.
The more than 10,000 defenders of Xingyang Pass retreated to Heqi County and urgently recruited more than 30,000 able-bodied men in the local area as local troops to defend the city together.
Originally, the defending general planned to rely on the city to hold out for as long as he could and try his best to delay the Yan army's advance south.
However, after hearing about this, Tong Xuan, the commander of the northern border army of Qi, sent a message to the defending general, saying that the Yan army had powerful artillery that could blow down the city gates and collapse the city walls, so it was meaningless to hold on.
Only by fighting on the plains and with a dispersed formation can we reduce casualties.
Therefore, Tong Xuan ordered the governor of Heqi County to deploy his troops on the south bank of the Qi River and use catapults to attack the Yan army's ships or bridges when they were halfway across the river, giving the Yan army a head-on blow.
The defending general had no choice but to obey and began to deploy his troops on the south bank of the Qi River early in the morning.
Even the military barracks were moved there.
They lined up in front of the county town, with the Qi River in front of them and the county town to the north. They could defend when advancing or retreating.
Occupying the right time and place.
After receiving the news, Shen Changgong and King Nan had a brief discussion. Considering that they had too many people and too much baggage, it was unrealistic to build boats to cross the river. Fortunately, the river was not wide, so they could temporarily build three floating bridges to cross it.
There was a bridge across the Qi River before, but the Qi army would never leave it to the enemy.
It's all destroyed.
Along the way, Shen Changgong also ordered each legion to cut down trees along the way and make planks and stakes to build a floating bridge.
The floating bridge is easy to build and will only take two days at most. If we take a detour, it will waste even more time.
Soon, they arrived at the north bank of the Qi River and began to set up camp.
It was already evening, and Shen Changgong had nothing to do, so he took Gongsun Wan'er and Tu Que Ling to the north bank of the Qi River to enjoy the scenery, and to investigate the enemy's situation and see the enemy's situation.
With their guards, they came to the bank of the Qi River.
The setting sun is reflected on the calm water, turning the water into a bright red color. When it shines on people's faces, everyone's cheeks become red.
"The setting sun and the lone wild goose fly together, the autumn water and the sky are the same color. It is truly a beautiful scene. It is a pity that it was stolen by the rats like Qi State."
Shen Changgong sighed as he looked at the beautiful scenery of the river and the surrounding farmland.
Gongsun Wan'er curled her lips and said,
"Wow, I didn't expect you could write poetry."
"Copied."
Shen Changgong told the truth.
"Impossible, I haven't heard of it. It must be you who wrote it."
Gongsun Wan'er patted Tu Que Ling's shoulder and said with a smile,
"Que Ling, our prince, is he talented in writing?"
"it is good."
Tu Queling said expressionlessly.
Shen Changgong smiled and said,
"She's a bit of a taciturn person. She won't compliment me if you tell her this. Que Ling is a down-to-earth person who gets things done."
"Really? This young lady, if she could seduce a man, she'd be no worse than the top prostitute in a brothel. After all, she's an assassin..."
Before Gongsun Wan'er could finish her words, she immediately turned around and ran away.
Because Tu Queling had already drawn his sword and was about to kill her.
Looking at them playing, Shen Changgong shook his head and smiled, then turned his gaze to the other side of the river.
He looked through the telescope.
On the other side of the river, just a few dozen meters away, is the county town.
This river is also a natural moat, but the moat was not dug through in the other three directions to bring water in. I don’t know why, but I guess they were afraid that the foundation of the city wall would be unstable.
The Qi army's camps were located around the city.
At this time, more than 10,000 people were lined up in a long battle array to the north of the county town, waiting to meet the Yan army crossing the river.
Many catapults were also pushed out, and the enemy's intentions were obvious.
"What are you looking at?"
A voice suddenly came from behind Shen Changgong.
He turned his head and saw Ma Ling, Zhang Han, Yu Huatian, Nie Bei and other commanders riding towards him.
Shen Changgong handed the telescope to Ma Ling and pointed to the other side of the river.
"The area south of the river is too narrow. If we cross here tomorrow, the enemy will give us a head-on blow and use their catapults to smash my bridge.
And even if we use artillery to drive them away, they can immediately retreat to the county town.
This distance of a few dozen meters is not enough for us to land and deploy our troops."
Ma Ling said coldly,
"It's not that difficult. Just walk three miles east. The location of the battlefield is decided by us, not them."
"Well, wherever we land, they'll intercept us. We might as well find an open area, land directly, and fight.
Then go three miles east and set up the guns directly on the shore. Anyone who dares to come and stop us will be killed directly."
"I mean, where is the enemy commander Tong Xuan now? Any news?"
Shen Changgong shook his head and said,
"This Tong Xuan is quite clever. He seems to be hiding. No one knows where he is. He is giving orders in secret.
After passing Heqi County, we head southeast, passing through Pushin County and Bokao County respectively, before we can reach Linzi, the capital of Qi State.
Tong Xuan seemed to know that even if they gathered hundreds of thousands of people to fight us, they would not be able to defeat us, so he placed all the local troops coming to support us in cities of all sizes.
There are eleven cities in these two counties.
There are 40,000 to 50,000 people in each city. If we fight, it will take one or two days. If we don't fight, we will not be safe staying behind.
It seems that Tong Xuan has adopted a strategy of dividing his forces to prevent our main force from being wiped out all at once, allowing us to pick off the obstacles one by one, thereby buying us time to arm the local troops and vassal kings in the southern border and buy time for the king to come to his rescue."
Ma Ling nodded and said,
"He's a master. We can't afford to waste time with him. It would be a waste of time to have 600,000 people attack one city after another.
Our four infantry corps will be dispersed and fight separately when the time comes, striving to pacify these two counties as soon as possible and then engage in a decisive battle with the Qi army directly in Linzi.
I hope Qi can be as weak as Kun, not daring to fight but only daring to surrender."