Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 299: The Night Attack on the Jin Bandits
The military construction concept of the Loyal Army is somewhat similar to the military construction ideas designed by Li Jing for the Tang Army in the early Tang Dynasty.

To put it in simple terms, compared to technical arms, it is relatively simple to train a qualified combat soldier.

For example, it is very easy to find soldiers who are willing to fight for hundreds of acres of land. It can be said that every young man who has fought a few life-and-death battles is a qualified soldier.

But it is very difficult to find civilians who can steadily build a ladder, doctors who can accurately treat soldiers, engineers who can quickly build a pontoon bridge, and grooms who can take care of horses very properly.

Without mature mathematics and science education, these people will die one by one and it will be very difficult to replenish them.

This was Li Jing's idea of building the army. When the war was going against him, the civilians, engineers, and field hospitals would flee quickly, while the regular army would fight to the death in the front.

Even if all the regular troops were killed, with the existence of these logistical personnel, the national strength of the Tang Dynasty could quickly organize an army with similar combat effectiveness.

Therefore, unlike the Jin army who would often organize civilians into signed soldiers and send them to the battlefield as cannon fodder, the Zhongyi army protected these technical troops very well and kept them away from the battlefield once the war broke out.

This is also the reason why Yu Yuan was very opposed to letting the farmers of Zhushui Village go directly to the battlefield.

Those farmers are all excellent inland sailors!
But there was no way. After Zhu Changshui's heartfelt plea, Yu Yuan was worried that if he didn't give them an exception, they might act without orders.

After all, these people's status is still unclear. They are considered righteous citizens who are against the Jin Dynasty. Yu Yuan can restrain them, but he really has no good way to control them.

You can't kill people for such a trivial matter.

Zhu Changshui returned to the boat and had just taken a few breaths when several young men with knives trotted over. "Brother, what's going on? Shall we take the lead?"

Zhu Changshui sighed pretentiously, "The officers of the Loyal Army look down on us. It's no wonder. What kind of war was that? Tens of thousands of people engaged in a massive battle.

What about us? At best, we fight some mountain bandits and naval bandits. Why would they look down on us? "

The leading young man's face instantly turned the color of liver, almost black in the torchlight. He stamped his feet, wanting to retort, but unable to find the words. For a moment, he could only angrily say, "Masters of the Loyal Army, how can you be so dismissive? We...we've killed Jin bandits before. We've also launched night raids, burned down their camps, and rescued many villagers. Have you, masters, forgotten?"

Zhu Changshui spread his hands, "Of course I haven't forgotten, but things are different now. Back then, the Jin bandits reacted and could have simply fled. But now, we must engage in a head-on battle. Regardless of whether the Jin bandits counterattack or not, we must resolutely fight to the end. Zhu Baogai, Zhu Jiuliu, how can the loyal and righteous officers trust us in such an open battle?"

After these words were spoken, several young people sighed again.

After a moment, the leader, Zhu Baogai, gritted his teeth and said, "Brother, forget about it. We have our hands and feet. Even if the Loyalty Army doesn't let us join the battle, can they still tie us all up? Let's grab our weapons and follow the Loyalty Army in.

"Brother, that's my home. If a thief breaks into my home, are the officers allowed to kill the thief but not allow the homeowner to resist? How can this be justified?"

Several people cheered up and looked at Zhu Changshui with expectant eyes.

Zhu Changshui played this trick in order to test the fighting spirit of his men. If they looked so aggressive and heroic on ordinary days, but they all backed down when faced with a big event, then they should just be guides. It seemed that the morale of the army was indeed useful at this time.

As if he had just remembered something, Zhu Changshui said slowly, "However, I persuaded him with both emotion and reason, and begged Commander Yu for a long time before I finally got a quota of one hundred soldiers and fifty iron crotch guards."

Zhu Baogai's eyes lit up: "Then brother..."

Zhu Changshui waved his hand: "Don't worry, Lao Hu."

A few steps away, Hu Liuyi, who had been looking towards Zhushuizhuang, turned around and asked, "What's going on?"

Zhu Changshui: "Old Hu, each of you twenty guides should wear an iron crotch. After all, you need to follow the main army and move in first, which is a bit dangerous."

Hu Liuyi just nodded silently, wiped his knife again, turned his head and stared at Zhuangzi in a daze.

Zhu Changshui knew that Hu Liuyi's second brother had died long after the signature collection, and his third brother also died of wound infection a few days ago.

Counting his sister-in-law, parents, and nephews who had perished earlier, Hu Liuyi's family was practically ruined. His current state reminded Zhu Changshui of Duan Wu, who had taken his own life with a belt in the wounded barracks.

The same broken families, the same despair of life.

Zhu Changshui wanted to give him some advice, but what could he say?

Thinking of this, Zhu Changshui could only sigh: "Zhu Baogai, you select a hundred men. They must be elite and brave, and they must have seen blood. They must be equipped with the best chain mail and weapons. I will personally lead you to kill the bandits and recapture our village!"

"Here!"

Zhu Baogai and others bowed at the same time and immediately went to each ship to gather people.

The sun had completely set and the moon rose, but because it was obscured by clouds, the moonlight was only a hazy patch. The moonlight that should have been bright now dimmed, plunging the entire Yishui County into darkness.

Time passed quickly. At three quarters past midnight, six hundred elite soldiers in the central army had already formed a line under the leadership of Zhou Xinglie. In addition to weapons, everyone had two torches on their belts.

To ensure secrecy, each soldier held a copper coin between their lips and was forbidden to speak or light torches without orders. Twenty farmers from Zhushui Village, familiar with the terrain, marched at the front of the column, also holding coins in their mouths. They let the soldiers hold onto their belts as they marched forward in the dim moonlight.

On the Yishui River, Zhu Changshui also brought a hundred farmers and drove several small boats upstream quietly to reach the dock of Zhushui Village.

After marching for about half an hour, the Loyal Army finally reached the edge of Zhushui Village. In silence, they carefully crossed the trench and pushed down several unreliable wooden fences.

Six hundred loyal and righteous soldiers filed in. At this moment, the war horses of the Jin army in Zhushui Village suddenly neighed. War horses are social animals, and soon the neighing became a chorus.

The drowsy Jin soldiers in the guard tower quickly woke up, and soon someone discovered the loyal army that had sneaked in and began shouting loudly to report the news.

The entire Zhushui Village quickly became lively.

"Damn it! Raising horses is more useful than raising dogs." Zhou Xinglie spat out the copper coins in his mouth, grinning and shouting, "Since a sneak attack failed, I'll just attack them today! Men, light the fire! Follow me to kill the bandits!"

"it is good!"

"kill!"

After the first torch was lit, the flame quickly spread backwards, and soon the flames gathered into a long dragon, and then spread out into teams of fifty people and began to charge and attack fiercely.

Zhu Changshui, who had already reached the dock, was alarmed by the movement in the village as soon as he stepped onto the Pantuo Road. He reacted quickly and simply lit a fire, circled around the east of the village and headed north, shouting all the way that a hundred thousand troops had arrived and that the bandits needed to be killed to avenge their losses.

Zhu Changshui was too familiar with Zhuangzi. Although he did not cause much casualties along the way, he steadily avoided all traps, forcibly broke through various weak points, and threw torches everywhere.

By this time, some officers of the Wuxing Army had already reacted. However, when they listened carefully, they heard shouts of killing from all directions. The entire Zhushui Village was ablaze with fire and smoke. In the night, they had no idea how many enemies there were or where they were coming from. They were all panicked for a moment.

In addition, the Wuxing Army was a newly defeated army. Even if the ninth and twelfth Meng'an did not directly participate in the battle, and even if Pei Manhui reacted quickly and assigned two thousand people to station outside the city and did not mix with the defeated army, the ordinary Jin army was not stupid. After so many days, they had all found out some explanations.

Not to mention that Wei Sheng had not been idle these days, constantly sending cavalry to harass, loudly urging them to surrender, or simply holding up human heads as a threat, which had already frightened the two isolated Wuxing Army Meng'an into panic.

In this situation, if the leading general is more capable, he can naturally turn grief into strength.

However, the ninth and twelfth Meng'an were originally at the bottom of the Wuxing Army's combat power sequence. The two marching Meng'an were just mediocre talents. They had no superb skills and could only keep perfunctory.

The vagueness of their superiors made the Jin army of the Ninth Meng'an have many bad guesses. When facing the night attack of the Loyal Army today, the panic that had been suppressed on weekdays was completely released. Each marching officer had different thoughts, and they could not exert more than three out of ten of their combat power, and were defeated step by step.

(End of this chapter)