The lower reaches of Xiaoling River.
The North Korean soldiers who wanted to cross the river first capsized and lost the pontoon, and then fell into the water one after another.
In order to rescue the soldiers who fell into the water, all the North Korean soldiers on the shore joined the rescue team.
"Hold on to the rope, don't let go!"
"Pull harder!"
With the rescue of the soldiers on the shore, the soldiers who fell into the water began to be rescued to shore.
Li Shifang, the Lord of Yancheng, held his stomach and said, "Those whose clothes are wet, hurry back to the camp and change, otherwise you will catch a cold!"
"You..." The Jiannu military supervisor wanted to say something, but nothing came out.
At that time, the probability of death from cold was very high.
In terms of symptoms, the main symptoms of wind-cold include headache, fever, cough, runny nose, etc.
From the perspective of modern medicine, colds can be common colds, influenza, respiratory diseases or even pneumonia.
The medical level at that time was not well developed, and this type of disease was generally called cold.
It was already quite cold in Liaodong in late August and early September, so it was understandable that Li Shifang asked those whose clothes were wet to return to the camp to change clothes.
"Return quickly, without any mistakes!" The Jiannu military supervisor pointed at the Korean soldiers and shouted.
The situation on the east bank of Xiaoling River was clearly visible to the Ming army on the west bank.
They were all stunned.
"What are the Korean soldiers...doing?" a Ming soldier asked his companions.
"What else can you do? Didn't you see the boat sank and the people fell into the water?"
"No, I mean the North Korean soldiers are too stupid to even build a pontoon bridge!"
The Xiangbing was a unit responsible for building bridges and roads, which were equivalent to the engineering corps in modern armies.
(Xiangbing is a name from the Song Dynasty. The name of similar troops in the Ming Dynasty cannot be found, so we can only refer to the Song Dynasty.)
In fact, there have been similar troops in every dynasty.
In the Song Dynasty, the task of building bridges and roads was undertaken by the soldiers who were responsible for miscellaneous work.
Xiangbing, also known as Xiangjun, usually did not go to the battlefield to fight. Instead, they were responsible for transporting food, building cities, forging weapons, repairing bridges and roads, and picking up officials.
Similar troops in the Yuan Dynasty were called military craftsmen, also known as the craftsman army (the "History of Yuan Dynasty, Military Records 1" records: craftsmen were selected to form the army, and were called the craftsman army).
On weekdays, they have to make weapons and armor for the soldiers.
Whenever there was a war, they would follow the Mongolian soldiers to fight, and they were responsible for building bridges and roads, crafting ships, and making siege/defense equipment.
The Taiping Army in the late Qing Dynasty also had a special earthen camp responsible for civil engineering work.
In modern times, engineering corps and pontoon bridge units emerged.
Looking at the poor performance of the North Korean soldiers, Liu Zhaoji couldn't help shaking his head: "It's okay that they can't build a pontoon bridge, but as soldiers, they can't even swim. Isn't this too fake?"
He guessed that the North Koreans would be passive in their use of military force, but he did not expect them to be so passive.
As a soldier building bridges and roads, the most basic requirement is to be able to swim.
North Korea is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and many North Koreans can swim.
For example, during the Imjin War, the number of registered sailors in Korea reached 160,000, which was no less than the number of the Ming navy.
North Korea, which has no shortage of sailors, actually used soldiers who can't swim to build a pontoon bridge, which shows their sinister intentions...
"If Jirgalang saw this scene, he would definitely be furious, right?" Liu Zhaoji continued.
"Not necessarily." Lin Qingye, deputy commander of the Guanliao Dengjin Navy, replied.
"What do you mean?"
Lin Qingye coughed twice. "Jirgalang's goal is to use these 20,000 North Korean soldiers to tie down our main force on the eastern front, so... as long as they don't flee, the mission is accomplished. But we have already transferred the main force to the western front in advance, so we just need to waste time with them here."
Liu Zhaoji nodded.
At this moment, the sound of impatient horse hooves suddenly came from behind.
Looking back, he found two scouts rushing towards him, one after the other.
"Report," the first scout reined in his horse and clasped his hands together, "The Governor's Central Army is fighting the Jiannu in the Nanshan area, and the situation is tense."
Liu Zhaoji thought: "How many troops did the Jiannu deploy in Nanshan?"
"It is estimated that there are 40,000 soldiers and horses, but the exact number cannot be determined."
Just as he finished speaking, the second scout came up and said, "Report, the Jiannu are gathering their forces on the north bank of the Nv'er River on the western front, and it seems that they are about to start a decisive battle."
"Western Front?" Liu Zhaoji was stunned.
Before the war, the Ming army decided to focus its main attack on the western front. Unexpectedly, the Jiannu also gathered heavy troops on the western front.
It seems that both sides anticipated the other's prediction.
"How many troops have they assembled on the western front?" Liu Zhaoji asked.
"The number of troops we have seen so far is around 40,000, but we do not rule out the possibility that there are more," the scout replied.
"Not good!" Liu Zhaoji frowned.
"What's wrong?" Lin Qingye asked.
Liu Zhaoji said anxiously: "After the Battle of Songshan, I learned from the prisoners that Jirgalang's total force was 100,000 infantry and cavalry plus 30,000 naval forces."
"At present, we still don't know where the Jiannu navy is. We can choose to ignore it for now."
"About 5,000 of the 100,000 infantry and cavalry were lost in the Battle of Songshan... so the Jiannu only have 95,000 soldiers left. Just now, the scout said that the Jiannu have deployed about 40,000 troops in Nanshan, which means that they are very likely to have deployed 55,000 troops in the area of Nv'er River on the western front!"
"And currently our army has only 35,000 troops on the western front, nearly 20,000 fewer than the Jiannu!"
After hearing this number, Lin Qingye was shocked.
The Daughter River on the western front is a large plain with very few tactics available, and it is basically a head-on confrontation!
The key to winning a head-on confrontation is military superiority.
Whoever has more troops has a greater chance of winning!
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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