My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 349 Division and Gathering

That muddy land was quite large, stretching all the way to Kuaiji, and consisted of wet, saline-alkali land. It was over a thousand meters wide and over a hundred miles long, extending inland from the coastline.

Once you enter such muddy, saline-alkali land, it's truly impossible to get out without several hours of arduous trekking.

Even after spending a lot of time getting out, I was exhausted and completely drained.

With no reinforcements or supplies, they were met by Sun Ce's well-rested and prepared army. No matter how brave the soldiers were, they had only two options: surrender or die in battle.

Therefore, Sun Ce really hoped that Liu Feng would be so foolish, and even if he thought Liu Feng wouldn't be so foolish, he still deployed a small number of scouts along the coast just in case.

Of course, this precaution wasn't to guard against a surprise attack by Liu Feng's army, but rather to prevent Liu Feng from being so foolish as to miss the opportunity to ambush and kill these elite landing troops because he failed to detect them.

"Hey……"

Sun Ce suddenly sighed. In the distance, a strong attack led by Huang Gai's deputy general Huang An was ultimately repelled by the enemy's armored soldiers. Although the two sides were still locked in battle, the Southern Expeditionary Army's navy had already landed in the distance, and Jia Kui's soldiers had jumped off the ships and reorganized their ranks.

The first two hundred crossbowmen, under the cover of a hundred shield bearers, began to advance, covering the landing of the following troops.

Jia Kui personally appeared on the front line, boosting the morale of his troops to its peak.

At least in terms of landing, the speed was more than 10% faster, which also boosted the morale of Gao Shun's troops who were fighting a bloody battle in the distance.

After all, the speed at which friendly forces come to one's aid greatly affects morale. The generals under the bald-headed leader of the artillery party have many unique insights and experiences in this area.

Because most of the ships of the Southern Expeditionary Army at this time were small boats that could only carry a dozen or twenty people, and the so-called large ships had a capacity of only thirty or fifty people, it would take a lot of time to reorganize them after landing.

Because they were small boats, they were particularly prone to disrupting the order of the troops when they were moving on the river, causing the troops to lose their organization and become completely chaotic during the landing.

In this situation, the larger the ship, the more likely it is to avoid similar problems, because the basic unit required for reorganization is larger. If a large ship carries a military commander of 500 men, then 5,000 men only need to be reorganized into ten units, which is naturally much simpler and faster.

However, Liu Feng and his men came up with a clever trick: they separated the small boats and the large warships, placing a large warship between the two groups of small boats to distinguish the small boats from each other, thus preventing the small boats from getting mixed up and disrupting the formation.

In this way, the speed of reorganization is greatly improved after logging in.

Jia Kui's troops regained their organization in the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, and began to advance towards Gao Shun's troops under the cover of long-range firepower.

When Jia Kui first landed, Cheng Pu did consider launching a surprise attack on the chaotic Southern Expeditionary Army on the shore, but after careful consideration, he chose to give up.

Two of the most important reasons were that there were many archers on the ships, which ensured that Cheng Pu would not dare to launch a surprise attack easily.

If Cheng Pu really insists on launching a surprise attack, then the Southern Expeditionary Army's infantry will be replaced with cavalry, and they won't lose out either way.

"Speed ​​up, send the entire army forward."

Sun Ce went straight down from the watchtower, mounted his horse, and by this time Jia Kui had already landed. The Southern Expeditionary Army had nearly 10,000 troops. Even if he only wiped out these 10,000 troops, Sun Ce felt that he had made a great profit, so there was no need to let them land.

Moreover, Sun Ce had already gained some understanding of the strength of the Southern Expeditionary Army through Gao Shun's troops.

Even though Sun Ce had already attached great importance to the Southern Expeditionary Army, he still found that he had underestimated the fighting strength of Gao Shun's troops.

Gao Shun's troops have at least 70% of the strength left to his ancestors by his father. They may be inferior in tactics, experience, and formations, but their equipment, weaponry, and high level of organization make up for most of the gap.

This is also thanks to Liu Feng's ability to raise money and procure equipment, as well as Gao Shun's S-level troop training ability.

There were actually quite a few great military trainers during the Three Kingdoms period, such as Yu Jin under Cao Cao, Ju Shou under Yuan Shao, and Sun Jian, the father of Sun Ce. They were all very capable military trainers, and Gao Shun's military training ability was already in that tier.

When they were under Lü Bu's command, the Trapped Camp only had seven hundred men, but together with Zhang Liao's more than a thousand men, they directly crushed Liu Bei's more than ten thousand men in a siege battle, which is really exaggerated.

Later, due to Hao Meng's rebellion, Lü Bu no longer trusted his savior Gao Shun, so he replaced the Trapped Camp with his brother-in-law Wei Xu, and handed it over to Gao Shun to command during the war.

At this point, the battle record of the Trapped Camp showed a significant decline, which shows that Wei Xu's ability was far inferior to Gao Shun's, and he couldn't even maintain the combat strength of the soldiers trained by Gao Shun.

This is why Liu Feng made Gao Shun the striker. If Jia Kui were the striker, he probably wouldn't be as steadfast and reliable as Gao Shun.

Because of Jia Kui's reinforcements, Huang Gai and Rui Liang had to withdraw their troops from the three sides of the siege and recall their forces.

In this fierce battle that lasted for half an hour, the number of casualties on both sides was no less than two thousand.

Gao Shun's troops suffered more than 200 dead and more than 600 wounded, while Huang Gai and Rui Liang's troops suffered more than 500 dead and more than 800 wounded.

Although the troops of Gao Shun and Jia Kui who landed did not have cavalry cover, the large number of crossbows effectively shielded their flanks, making it difficult for Cheng Pu's cavalry to find opportunities.

Cheng Pu attempted to bypass Gao Shun by going around him from the side, and then attacked Jia Kui from the side.

However, because of the detour, Jia Kui had ample time to concentrate a group of archers on the flank where Cheng Pu was located, and then set up a crossbow formation to wait for you to die.

Cheng Pu was forced to stop his attack.

It wasn't that Cheng Pu deliberately took a detour to waste time, but rather that he had no choice. If he hadn't taken a detour, the archers in Jia Kui's unit wouldn't have had a chance to fight, and the archers in Gao Shun's army would have taught him a lesson first.

After the pressure on Gao Shun's troops was relieved, they took the opportunity to restore their formation, evacuated the wounded to the inner area, removed their equipment for simple treatment and bandaging, and replaced the inner soldiers with new armor to fill the battle line.

Gao Shun's troops originally numbered four thousand, but now they have been reduced by twenty percent. Their formation has had to be shrunken inward to maintain the density and integrity of the circular formation.

Taking advantage of Cheng Pu's reluctance to move, Jia Kui quickened his pace and closed the distance to be in close proximity to Gao Shun's troops.

This so-called "reciprocal response" refers to the range of two crossbows.

If the crossbows fired from Gao Shun's side could coincide with those fired from Jia Kui's troops, the enemy would not dare to enter this ranged fire zone, otherwise they would suffer a double blow.

This means that Gao Shun and Jia Kui have reached a minimum level of cooperation.

At that moment, Huang Gai, Rui Liang, and Song Qian moved together.

They had just received Sun Ce's order to separate Gao Shun's and Jia Kui's forces at all costs, and absolutely prevent them from joining forces. Huang Gai and Rui Liang exchanged bewildered glances; they truly hadn't expected Sun Ce to issue such an order, otherwise they wouldn't have withdrawn their troops besieging Gao Shun.

However, Sun Ce's orders could not be disobeyed. Helpless, Huang Gai and Rui Liang had to issue new orders, sending the soldiers who had just retreated back to advance again. Huang Gai was on the left, Rui Liang on the right, and Song Qian flanked from behind, with the three armies moving together.

Song Qian was on the far right, with an endless view stretching to the coast ahead, unhindered by any opponents. Therefore, he urged his soldiers to march forward at breakneck speed.

Huang Gai and Rui Liang moved to Gao Shun's two flanks respectively and sent troops to launch a fierce attack. Under the attack from both sides, Gao Shun was unable to move.

At the same time, they used a combination of shields and powerful bows to slow down Jia Kui's approach to Gao Shun.

Cheng Pu also began to take action at this time, stirring up trouble around Jia Kui and forcing him to slow down his advance, otherwise he would be playing with his life.

If the cavalry find an opportunity to charge during the march, and Song Qian is on the flank, it's practically a free kill.

Jia Kui had to slow down and was even forced to stop several times.

Song Qian seized this opportunity, ran three miles, bypassed Rui Liang's troops from the side, and began to rush towards the middle of Gao Shun and Jia Kui.

In this way, the battlefield situation became a sandwich situation, with Gao Shun's troops below and Jia Kui's troops above. To Gao Shun's left was Huang Gai, to his right was Rui Liang, and further to his right was Song Qian, who was on his way and was fiercely cutting into the middle of Gao Shun and Jia Kui.

It is conceivable that Song Qian's troops will pay a heavy price, but only in this way can they complete the task that Sun Ce entrusted to them to be completed at all costs—to separate Gao Shun's and Jia Kui's troops and prevent them from joining forces.

Gao Shun and Jia Kui keenly realized that something was wrong with Sun Ce's army, but they were rather helpless.

Gao Shun was almost being attacked from both sides by Huang Gai and Rui Liang. Moreover, he had already lost 20% of his soldiers and consumed a huge amount of arrows. The remaining combat strength made it impossible for him to deal with Huang Gai and Rui Liang at the same time.

Jia Kui was helpless. From his angle, he could see Song Qian running wildly, and Song Qian's destination was precisely between himself and Gao Shun.

Cheng Pu's position was quite cunning; he had moved to the upper left of Jia Kui's forces, which was near the coast.

His position provided a strong deterrent to Jia Kui's troops. As long as Jia Kui dared to gather his archers at the front, he would have an opportunity to attack Jia Kui's troops from horseback.

In this way, the exchange ratio will remain the same, and Song Qian will still be able to carry out tactical maneuvers.

No matter how you look at it, Sun Ce's army is not at a disadvantage.

After observing the battlefield situation, Jia Kui made his decision after only a dozen breaths of contemplation.

No matter what, we have to push forward, even if it means Song Qian will have to cut through, but getting closer to Gao Shun is always better.

That tiny distance could be a matter of life and death in the next moment.

Jia Kui did not believe that Sun Ce was capable of wiping him and Gao Shun outright, so he chose to pay a heavy price to get close to Gao Shun.

He immediately issued three orders.

The first order is that the vanguard should advance at all costs to get close to Gao Shun, and if necessary, return to Gao Shun's command.

The second order was to abandon the flanks and rear, and instead pull the main force of archers and crossbowmen to the flanks to concentrate fire on Song Qian's flanks.

The third order was to move to the left rear, to the flank where Cheng Pu was threatening, to reinforce the shield infantry, in order to minimize casualties and, in conjunction with the long halberds, to guard against Cheng Pu's charge.

In Jia Kui's view, mounted archery was not scary, but charging into enemy lines was too risky. If one part of the enemy was broken through and the chaos spread, it would be deadly.

The army was somewhat puzzled by the three orders, but Jia Kui was known for his strict discipline and the use of both kindness and severity in managing his troops.

Therefore, although his subordinates were puzzled, none of them dared to question Jia Kui at this time, and instead they worked hard to get things done.

After a short while, Jia Kui's vanguard and Song Qian's vanguard clashed violently, engaging in close combat.

Twenty breaths later, Jia Kui's two hundred crossbowmen boldly left the protection of the shield bearers, opening up a cross-section of more than forty meters. The first row lay prone, the second row crouched, and the third row stood, firing three rounds of rapid fire at Song Qian's troops in one go, hitting more than one hundred of Song Qian's troops in one go.

Looking down from the sky, it looked as if a large chunk of Song Qian's troops had suddenly been bitten off, leaving a gaping hole.

But Song Qian was now ruthless, disregarding the losses and only urging his troops to continue advancing.

As a result, Jia Kui's troops and Song Qian's troops almost collided, but both sides continued to deploy new troops, squeezing each other and vying for space.

The closest point of Jia Kui's troops was no more than sixty meters from Gao Shun, yet they still failed to break through.

However, this also resulted in Song Qian's troops having a very small space, with an average depth of only 100 meters and the narrowest part being only 60 meters.

Just as Jia Kui had predicted, Cheng Pu launched a flanking attack without hesitation after seeing the actions of Jia Kui's troops. His horse quickly swept past Jia Kui's side and rear, and a burst of archery caused more than sixty casualties to the enemy.

The reason for this disparity between the two sides is twofold: firstly, the cavalry bows are inferior in power to the infantry bows and crossbows; and secondly, the Southern Expeditionary Army's weaponry and equipment are far superior to those of Sun Ce's army.

With armor, even just leather armor, protection against stray arrows is undoubtedly greatly improved.

Even if you are hit by an arrow, you may not necessarily be injured. Sometimes the arrow will get stuck in the leather armor, making it look like there are several arrows stuck in your body, which is quite frightening. But in reality, it only breaks the skin and flesh and does not damage the muscles, bones and internal organs.

Those who were seriously injured or even died were simply unlucky, having been shot in vital areas such as the neck or femoral artery, and ultimately perished in battle.

After inquiring about the casualty figures from the flanks and rear, Jia Kui gritted his teeth and completely ignored Cheng Pu's troops behind him, desperately pushing forward to squeeze Song Qian's space. An extremely fierce battle broke out between the two sides.

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, more than a hundred warriors under Jia Kui's command had fallen, and Song Qian's command was in no better shape, with casualties exceeding two hundred.

Jia Kui and Song Qian made a new decision almost simultaneously: to order the front-line troops to continue to expand their gains, increase pressure on the enemy's space, and drive them back to expand their own occupied territory.

However, Jia Kui found a new breakthrough.

After his clash with Song Qian, Jia Kui's left flank immediately became embroiled in a fierce battle with Song Qian's right flank. However, Jia Kui's own right flank was freed from its constraints. Not only was it no longer threatened by Cheng Pu's cavalry, but it also had no enemies in front of it. It even moved forward to the right, sliding over and squeezing Song Qian's opportunity from both directions.

(End of this chapter)