roccoschili Chapter 393 Lu Xun's Doomsday (2)
Chapter 393 Lu Xun's Doomsday (2)
Currently, in addition to the 20,000-strong Han army, there are two prisoners: Ma Zhong and Zhuge Jin.
Ma Zhong had already surrendered. To be precise, he wasn't a prisoner; he was simply grateful to his former lord for not wanting to fight against the Wu army, and therefore didn't take on any missions.
When Guan Xing first captured Ma Zhong, he was worried that Ma Zhong would incite his soldiers to mutini, so he did not dare to take him with him and left him in Linru instead.
After defeating Pan Zhang and completely eliminating Ma Zhong's old subordinates, Guan Xing worried that Ma Zhong's actions in Linru would affect the work of County Magistrate Geng Shang, so he recalled him to his side.
At this moment, everyone in the army was busy, except for Ma Zhong and Zhuge Jin, who were sitting idly on a stone by the roadside, watching the Han soldiers work and chatting.
During our casual conversation, we suddenly noticed a row of tents erected by the roadside. Not only were there countless stretchers piled up next to the tents, but each tent also had a half-meter-wide "medicine" character written on its curtain. There was even a large flag standing in front of the tent, with the same "medicine" character fluttering in the wind.
Zhuge Jin asked curiously, "What place is that?"
Ma Zhong glanced at it and replied, "The field hospital, I heard, was set up by General Guan Xing specifically for wounded soldiers. Wounded soldiers would be sent here immediately for treatment after they were injured. Moreover, General Guan also prepared a lot of salt and gauze. The wounded soldiers would first have their wounds cleaned with salt water, and then bandaged with gauze that had been boiled in salt water, ostensibly for disinfection. It's actually quite effective. The probability of wounded soldiers who died from suppuration treated in this way decreased by more than 80%. General Guan called this kind of suppuration an infection, and salt water can effectively prevent infection."
The Han army's field hospitals were very rudimentary. The gauze was just ordinary rags, which were simply washed and reused after each use. Medicines were even scarcer, and many wounded soldiers only had saline solution and no other medications available. If such medical conditions were to be found in later generations, they would be heavily criticized by netizens.
Nevertheless, it was still much better than other armies, at least the wounded soldiers felt valued. You have to understand that other armies don't have hospitals, and military doctors are the exclusive domain of generals. Ordinary soldiers have almost no access to them, and when they are injured, they can only endure it, and if they can't endure it, they die.
In the era of cold weapons, not many soldiers died on the battlefield, but many died after the war from wound infections.
It is no exaggeration to say that more than 70% of soldiers died after the war rather than on the battlefield.
Therefore, although the field hospital established by Guan Xing was poorly equipped, it was a blessing for countless wounded soldiers at the grassroots level, at least allowing them to feel cared for.
Zhuge Jin sighed, “No wonder the soldiers were willing to fight to the death for Guan Xing even if they had only known him for a day. It turns out that we all talk about loving our soldiers like our own children, but they only put it into action. It seems that our defeat was not unjust.”
Ma Zhong sighed, "Yes, many of the things General Guan did seemed like insignificant little things, but it was these insignificant little things that laid the foundation for victory. It's not that we couldn't do these little things, but that we were too lazy to do them, so in the end we all became prisoners."
The two looked at each other and smiled, their lips full of bitterness.
……
Jiangshan Town is over a hundred miles away from Yushan City, and even further from the battlefield chosen by Guan Xing. Therefore, Lu Xun only arrived at Yushan after Guan Xing's defensive positions were almost completed.
The people of Yushan had already followed Shen Yi in evacuating, and Yushan was now an empty city. The Wu army could have easily entered the city to rest, but Lu Xun did not, and instead chose to camp outside the city.
The walls of this dilapidated city are less than two meters high. In a battle, they would not only fail to stop the enemy but would also trap us. What use are they?
Poor Yushan City, Guan Xing didn't want it, Lu Xun didn't want it, and even Ding Feng didn't want it, because everyone disliked it because of its low walls.
Lu Xun rested for a night, and at dawn he led his army to set off again, heading straight for Guanxing. However, he marched very slowly and did not seem to be in a hurry.
The reason for doing this is simple: this battle is the final battle, not a sneak attack. Therefore, we cannot waste precious energy on the journey. We must ensure that the soldiers get enough sleep so that they can conserve their energy and be in peak condition at all times.
With this in mind, Lu Xun pressed down on Guan Xing with an air of fearlessness in the face of death.
At the same time, Shen Yi also received Guan Xing's order. After making some simple arrangements, he led 30,000 troops out of the city to attack Lu Xun from behind.
This army of 30,000 does not include the Wuyue tribe in the Huangwu Mountains and Wang Tao's tribe in the Wuyi Mountains. If Wang Tao of Wuyue is included, Shen Yi's forces are close to 50,000, making him a truly powerful and well-equipped army.
It is worth mentioning that, in order to lure Shen Yi out of the city to pursue him, Lu Xun did not remove the pontoon bridge over the valley when he retreated. Shen Yi used the pontoon bridge left by Lu Xun to successfully cross the valley and enter the corridor. He steadily advanced according to his agreement with Guan Xing and pressed on towards Lu Xun with overwhelming momentum.
During the march, Shen Yi also sent messengers to contact the troops stationed in the mountains on both sides, so that the troops stationed in the mountains would gradually tighten the encirclement, like a rope around Lu Xun's neck that was being tightened more and more, compressing Lu Xun's living space little by little.
It must be said that after the two major battles of annihilating Han Dang and covering the retreat of the Han army from the mountains after annihilating Xu Sheng, Shen Yi has become more and more like a great general.
Meanwhile, around noon, Lu Xun finally led his troops to Guan Xing's side.
Lu Xun ran up the hillside and looked at the Han army's camp from afar with a worried expression. The Han army had set up two rows of deer antlers on the battlefield, and behind the deer antlers stood many spearmen, with five-meter-long spears in their hands resting on the deer antlers, ready to thrust at any time. Below the deer antlers, there was a two or three-meter-wide patch of fresh soil, which was obviously a horse trap.
What's even more ruthless is that these antler-shaped horse traps have five layers, meaning they would have to pass through five layers of defenses to reach the Han army.
Ding Feng, standing next to Lu Xun, grinned and said, "Isn't Guan Xing trapping himself by doing this? What is he trying to do? Is he trying to wear us down through defense?"
Lu Xun said, "Shen Yi must have already entered the corridor. Guan Xing is obviously cooperating with Shen Yi to let him come and annihilate us. Encircling and annihilating our 20,000 troops would be a great achievement. Guan Xing is willing to give such a merit to his subordinate. He is truly magnanimous."
Ding Feng frowned and said, "In other words, Guan Xing can't break out in a short time. Should we turn back and attack Shen Yi first? After all, Shen Yi is still on the move and it's impossible for him to quickly establish such a defensive position."
Lu Xun shook his head and said, "Absolutely not. We can't let the Han army pull us in two directions anymore. If we keep pulling us in two directions, our morale will be gone. So this time, even if it's a mountain of knives and a sea of fire in front of us, we have to break through it. Even if it's a wall, we have to crash into it. Either we break through the wall and break out of the encirclement, or we crash into it and die here. There is no third option."
"Fortunately, Shen Yi is still far away from us. Given Shen Yi's cautious nature of seeking no merit but avoiding mistakes, it will take him at least three days to reach us from behind. Therefore, we must break through Guan Xing's defense line within three days."
"You immediately lead men into the mountains to cut down trees and quarry stone to build bamboo rafts and catapults. The bamboo rafts will be used to pave the Han army's horse traps, and the catapults will be used for attacks. Build as many other machines as you can. Tomorrow morning, give me a full-scale attack."
Guan Xing's defenses are too strong. You can't attack such a defense with your bare hands; you have to use equipment to help you.
However, building weapons takes time, and Shen Yi could attack from behind at any moment. Lu Xun doesn't have much time to waste on trivial matters like building weapons. He must finish all the pre-battle preparations by tomorrow morning before starting the battle.
Fortunately, Guan Xing kept himself confined to the camp and wouldn't come out to cause trouble, allowing him to prepare in peace.
Time passed quickly amidst Lu Xun's busy work, and soon it was the next morning. After breakfast, Lu Xun gave a brief pre-battle pep talk, and then, with a wave of his longsword, the Wu army, pushing more than thirty catapults built overnight and more than fifty ballistae brought from Jiangling, marched in a mighty force towards Guan Xing.
The final battle has begun!