What’s even more interesting is that just three days after Wulindatai appeared in the Wuhe area, Wanyan Wushu and his 30,000 main cavalry of the Jin army rushed to Wuyang in a menacing manner, intending to join forces with Wulindatai.
In other words, after all the previous news from Changsha was completely confirmed, Wanyan Wushu did not leave a single soldier in Nanyang, and his entire army headed straight for Wuhe at high speed... Then he plunged headfirst into the defense line that Yue Fei had urgently arranged.
That being said, there was a huge gap in military strength, and an even bigger gap in combat power. In addition, the Song army had a city to defend, so it was impossible for Yue Fei to cause any substantial damage to Wanyan Wushu... But war is not just about field battles and defending cities.
"What do you mean you can't cross the river?"
On the morning of the 22nd day of the first lunar month, on the bank of the Li River, Wuzhu, who had been sitting on his horse for a long time, finally received the news, but he could not help but stare coldly at Meng'an in front of him.
"Fourth Prince, we have investigated clearly that on the night when General Wulinda arrived in Wuyang, the bridges on the Li River were all demolished and burned by the Song army on the other side overnight. It's not just the one in front of us..." Meng'an, who had just returned from a hard ride, was also on the horse, and he looked embarrassed. "Moreover, the ice melted and the water rose, and several shallow fords were difficult to cross. It was barely possible to float horses across the river, but it was extremely difficult to cross the subsequent baggage."
Wuzhu opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
"When the army marches, they cut through mountains and build bridges across rivers." At this moment, Wanyan Balisu, who was standing by, suddenly responded coldly. "If there is no floating bridge, then find a place with stable water flow to build a floating bridge... Is this the Huai River or the Han River? Can't we do it?"
Meng An was shocked and immediately took the order and left, but he asked people to cut down temporary trees and prepare to build a floating bridge in front of the ruins of the old floating bridge.
Seeing Meng'an leave to give orders, Balisu solemnly advised Wuzhu: "Fourth Prince, please forgive me for being blunt, but since the Song army has begun to deploy defenses here, it means that the Wuhe area has been completely controlled by the Song army. At this time, we must be more careful and wait for the baggage behind us, and we must not easily abandon the reserve and move forward."
Wuzhu nodded repeatedly, but it was unclear whether he was just being perfunctory or had really listened.
Han Chang, who was standing by, wanted to interrupt and ask whether they should be wary of the problem with Nanyang Wang De behind them, but seeing that Wuzhu's hand holding the whip was trembling slightly, he did not say anything - he was well aware of the Fourth Prince's unwillingness, anger and sense of absurdity at this moment, and he was even more aware of the certain desire that the Fourth Prince was forcibly suppressing at this moment.
It is obvious that if there is anything Wanyan Wushu urgently wants to do at this moment, it is to rush over, find the Zhao Song official who is not on the south but on the north, and eat him alive!
In fact, if he had not known that the Zhao Song government was here, judging from the current situation, Wuzhu should have played it safe and gone directly north from Ruzhou in the west, first heading to Luoyang, the Western Capital, to find out the military situation and stabilize the situation.
The logging and bridge-building processes were very slow. This was not only because the Song army had made preparations and collected possible ferries in advance, but also because a river like the Li River, which was neither big nor small, did not require ships as a base for building a floating bridge. More importantly, at this time, Wanyan Wushu and other talents realized the adverse consequences of abandoning the craftsmen camp in order to lure the enemy in Nanyang, and now abandoning the civilians and concentrating the main cavalry to advance at a high speed.
In a word, the bridge can always be built, but when the necessary number of Han laborers and military craftsmen are lacking, it is inevitable that the construction will be clumsy and slow.
Not only that, but even more devastating things were yet to come. The Jin army finally managed to roughly float a bridge, and then sent a small group of elite troops to cross the river from a shallow beach in the distance, in an attempt to anchor on the other side... However, the small group of troops did not wait for the bridge, but instead waited for the fireboats floating down from upstream.
After the fireboats came the remaining troops of the small force that hastily fled back, led by Puli Yan, who was injured and knelt before them. They had just taken off their armor and were crossing the river on floating horses in the cold water, but they were ambushed on the other side of the river. About three or four hundred Song soldiers equipped with leather armor, bows and crossbows, and short weapons had been waiting in the increasingly lush reeds opposite the shallows.
After a short battle, the army of fifty people quickly lost more than half of them, and they could only jump into the river and swim across the river with their horses to escape in a panic.
The Jin army leaders on the south bank of the Li River looked at each other. No one went to deal with Puliyan who had escaped, and no one went to look at the river that was still emitting flames. They only went to look at the Fourth Prince.
"The only way is to send more people to cross the river on floating horses and clean up the north bank of the river." Wanyan Wushu used his military common sense and military logical reasoning ability to say something nonsense.
"How many people should be sent across the river?" Wulinda Taiyu finally frowned and spoke. "Fourth Prince, the Song army has been prepared. If we send too few people, we will probably die again in such a shallow river. But if we send too many people, how many people are appropriate? And how much time will it take?"
"Then what do you think I should do? What can I do?" Wuzhu's face suddenly turned red, and veins on his hands holding the reins were bulging.
Wulindatai was shocked, but he could only look at Han Chang and Balisu.
"You three Meng'ans, go upstream and downstream to find shallows and cross the river together... Cross as many as you can and control the situation first." Helplessly, Bali turned around and gave the order.
After receiving the order, three cavalry battalions that were powerful enough to destroy a city and destroy an army in the past galloped forward together, causing the ground along the river to tremble slightly. It was indeed an extraordinary momentum. However, when they thought that such mighty cavalry were about to swim across the river at an asymmetric risk of their lives just to build a pontoon bridge, several high-ranking Jin army officers including Wuzhu found it a bit absurd.
However, this time, it finally worked... After experiencing asymmetric casualties and a long period of suffering, the pontoon bridge was finally erected in the evening.
Once a floating bridge is built, as long as we keep this bridge, we can easily build countless floating bridges tomorrow.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!
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