The Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty: The Competition in the Central Plains

"You continue to garrison in Chaoge and train the troops. Once the time is right, you must cross the river to the south to capture Luoyang." Shi Le said. Shi Sheng said: "I understand, I will keep it in mind!"

"General Shi, please remember that Li Ju and Guo Mo are both experienced warriors and should not be taken lightly. Li Ju's nephew Guo Song is a brave general who is better than his master. Now Guo Song is stationed on the south bank of the Yellow River. You must find out his weaknesses and then defeat them one by one." Zhang Bin instructed. Shi Sheng bowed and said: "You Hou is right. I will pay attention to these."

In the Chaoge Sizhou Governor's Mansion, Shi Sheng and his generals were discussing the matter of crossing the river to the south to attack Luoyang. Shi Sheng said: "We have been training our troops for some time. As the saying goes, it takes a thousand days to train an army and only one day to deploy it. The spies we sent to the south reported back a lot about Guo Song on the south bank. Guo Song is engaged in farming, and he is both a soldier and a farmer. It seems that he is trying to solve the problem of food and supplies, but in fact, in my opinion, soldiers cannot be trained well if they farm. As long as we take them by surprise and attack them when they are unprepared, we can capture the camp on the south bank. In addition, Guo Mo led some soldiers back to Yingchuan, and Li Ju led some soldiers back to Xingyang, which are all in our favor."

"Your Excellency is right. It is a good time to attack the south bank now." Guo Quan said. Song Shi tried to dissuade him, saying, "Sir Governor, in my opinion, it is not the right time to attack the camp on the south bank. Guo Song is brave and resourceful. In the Battle of Luokou a few years ago, Liu Can, the then crown prince of the Han Kingdom, led Liu Yasheng and other 100,000 infantry and cavalry to station on the north bank of Mengjin. As a result, they were defeated by the resourceful and fickle Guo Song, and the camp was captured, and a lot of food, baggage, horses and cattle were seized. With the cooperation of Li Ju and others, Guo Song led his troops to break through and rushed to Wulao. Liu Cong personally led his troops to chase him, but failed to catch up. Liu Cong was furious and later died of illness."

"General Song, you have just arrived and surrendered not many days ago. Instead of actively charging into battle, you boosted the enemy's morale and destroyed your own prestige. Yin An and others surrendered to Li Ju, are you unwilling to accept it?" Jiang Ying said sarcastically. Song Shi was a little angry and said, "General Jiang, I am doing this for the good of everyone and the governor. If you don't listen, I can't do anything."

Shi Sheng didn't make things difficult for Song Shi, but Song Shi didn't listen to him either. Shi Sheng said: "General Ji Long is ready to lead his troops to Mount Tai to completely eliminate Xu Kan and prepare for the attack on Cao Yi. If we cannot immediately expel Li Ju's forces near Luoyang and destroy the Jin soldiers in Xingyang and Yingchuan, we will not be able to connect with Yuzhou, so we can't wait any longer."

Generals Guo Quan, Jiang Ying and others were eager to try, and Guo Quan said: "Please give the order, sir!"

Song Shi was afraid of being framed by Jiang Ying and others, so he said: "I am willing to take the lead!"

Shi Sheng smiled and said: "Okay, Generals Guo Quan and Song Shi will lead 2,000 infantry to cross the river to attack Guo Song's camp on the south bank. I and other generals are waiting for your good news!"

Before dawn, Guo Quan, Song Shi and 2,000 soldiers had breakfast, and 2,000 war horses were waiting outside Chaoge City. Shi Sheng led several generals to see them off, and Guo Quan asked with some doubts: "Sir, didn't you lead 2,000 infantry to attack Guo Song?"

"Yes, I sent Jiang Ying to lead 500 cavalry to the north bank of the Yellow River yesterday. I let you ride horses for speed. When you reach the north bank, hand the horses to Jiang Ying, and you will board the ship to cross the river to the south. I will lead 3,500 cavalry to reinforce you at any time!" Shi Sheng said. Guo Quan was delighted to hear Shi Sheng's arrangement and said, "The arrangement is very thoughtful! ”

Guo Song built a series of camps on the south bank of the Yellow River, with a total of thirty camps. The highest point of each camp had an identical flag. Each camp could station one hundred soldiers, and the camps were about one mile apart, so that they could help each other. The shape of each camp was exactly the same, and Guo Song did not have a fixed camp. Each camp had a camp owner, who obeyed Guo Song's command. Guo Song was in a camp in the west, discussing the strategy of guarding the camp with his subordinates and camp owners. Guo Song said: "According to the information obtained by the spies, Shi Sheng will soon send people to attack our camp, and we must be fully prepared. Wherever there are obstructions near the camp, whether it is weeds or woods, or small hills, or valleys, or large pits, as long as they can be hidden and concealed, some archers must be hidden. Leave some people in the camp, and some camps can have no people, or leave a few people. ”

"General Guo, we have only two thousand brothers, most of them are hidden, and only a small number of them are guarding the camp. What if the enemy attacks these camps fiercely and occupies them? "Yang Zhang said. Guo Song smiled and said, "Please rest assured, Governor Yang, my method is to use these camps as bait. Once the enemy attacks the camps, we will attack them from behind. The enemy's attention is on the camps, and they will be attacked from both sides, and they will suffer heavy casualties. The enemy will be severely damaged and will be exhausted, and we will chase and annihilate them. "

"General Guo is very smart, so let's deploy according to the general's plan! "Yang Zhang said.

Near noon, the fleet led by Guo Quan and Song Shi was about to arrive at the south bank of the Yellow River. There were different numbers of lookout holes on the walls of the camp, which were also shooting holes for bows and arrows. The soldiers stationed in the camp would observe through the lookout holes for a while, and then hold bows and arrows to prepare for battle. Seeing that the boats were getting closer and closer to the camp, when the boats were only half an arrow's distance away from the camp, the soldiers began to shoot arrows at the people on the boats from the lookout holes. In order to confuse the enemy, every time the soldiers shot an arrow, they quickly switched to another lookout hole to continue shooting. Guo Quan and Song Shi sat down respectively. On the two ships in the middle, the soldiers on the command ship fired arrows in retaliation. Most of the arrows shot from the ship hit the walls of the camp. Some arrows hit the observation holes, and some arrows shot into the camp from the observation holes, but the power had been greatly weakened. Although the archers on the ship were protected by shields, some were still shot.

There were casualties on the ship, and some soldiers who were shot fell into the water, and the soldiers on the ship hurriedly pulled them up. Some had been shot to death, and their bodies drifted away with the waves. After paying a relatively small casualty, the fleet led by Guo Quan and Song Shi forced ashore between the camps. Guo Quan was the first to get off the shipAfter landing, he raised his sword and shouted: "Brothers, abandon the boats and go ashore immediately! Leave five people on each boat to guard the boats, and the rest will attack these camps with me!"

Guo Quan, Song Shi and several generals, each led two or three hundred people to attack a camp. Arrows kept coming from the camp, and some soldiers fell in front of the camp. Guo Song, who was hiding in the nearby woods, saw that it was almost time, jumped up and shouted: "Brothers, charge! It's time to make contributions to the country! Kill two people for merit, kill many people for awards!"

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