GBP Chapter 293: Deeply Surrounded
Chapter 293: Deeply Surrounded
Before we knew it, the entire northern grassland was full of vitality and was completely covered with green.
However, the herds of sheep, cattle and horses that were scattered all over the grassland in previous years are now much fewer. At least, that is Liu Feiyun's impression.
By early April, Liu Feiyun had already traveled more than a thousand miles into the Northern Wilderness.
As the Chen Dynasty army continued to advance into the northern wilderness, the distance between the various tribes became shorter and shorter.
For example, when Pan Wenjin's brigade, which Liu Feiyun followed, was first divided, it needed to be deployed over a hundred miles from east to west. But now the deployment range is only sixty or seventy miles.
Along the way, Liu Feiyun fought several battles with the Northern Wilderness Barbarians. These barbarians were just small tribes with only a few hundred soldiers.
This force was easily defeated by his Yunliu camp.
According to the battle report, Liu Feiyun's Yunliu Camp had killed nearly a thousand Beihuang armored soldiers and more than three thousand unarmored soldiers. But in reality, the actual results were less than 40% of what was reported.
The successive victories inevitably made many people look down on the barbarians in the Northern Wilderness.
However, Liu Feiyun had a vague feeling of uneasiness.
"How could the Northern Wild Barbarians be so weak! Otherwise, how could they easily plunder the border counties three times and return with full loads each time! After all, there aren't many counties like Anping County that they haven't been able to take over!"
Towards the end of early April, news finally came about the main army of the Northern Wilderness.
"The Northern Wasteland has gathered 250,000 armored soldiers and 300,000 unarmored soldiers to besiege the main force led by General Wang Jue. General Wang now has 65,000 soldiers from the three Beijing military divisions, Xuanwu, Suzaku, and Qilin."
"There are also two border army divisions with 35,000 men, 50,000 men drawn from eight state divisions, and 50,000 men drawn from 37 county brigades."
"In addition to these 200,000 regular troops, there are also more than 100,000 local soldiers, private armies of territories, and civilian militias."
"General Wang has ordered that our Azure Dragon Army and White Tiger Army do not need to go to support him, but continue to advance towards Sirius Lake and attack the barbarian tribe's rear."
"So, we continue to move north! And we have to speed up our progress."
After Liu Feiyun read out the military order, he said to his subordinates in the account:
"Although the military report says that at least half of the barbarian soldiers fighting against the commander-in-chief are armored soldiers, there shouldn't be too many armored soldiers left behind. But there must be tens of thousands of armored soldiers, plus one or two hundred thousand leather armored soldiers, which should not be underestimated."
"Everyone, the real tough battle is about to come!"
"But! We don't have to worry too much! After all, the state divisions and county brigades that are traveling with our Qinglong Army have a total of tens of thousands of troops! Add to that the tens of thousands of local militias, and the total number is nearly 200,000."
"The White Tiger Army also has a similar number of troops. In addition, the various tribes of Jinzhou in the east also have tens of thousands of people. Our nearly 400,000 troops are going to raid the lair of the Northern Wilderness people. This is enough to give those barbarians face. There is no reason why we cannot win, unless we dare not fight to the death."
"This battle! Our army will win!"
Liu Feiyun finally said with absolute certainty!
"Fight with all your might! Our army will win!"
Everyone responded in unison.
After the Northern Wilderness main force engaged Wang Jue's Chen Dynasty main force, they did not rush into a decisive battle, but instead launched a confrontation and war of attrition. Wang Jue also seemed not to want to fight a decisive battle too early, so the two sides spent time in a place called Rabbit Tail Plain.
At the same time, the scattered armies of the Chen Dynasty began to gradually gather together, and finally formed three combat groups: the Western Army, the Eastern Army, and the Jinzhou Army, and they marched towards Tianlang Lake at the same time.
But soon, the Jinzhou troops, which had the smallest number of troops, reported that they were blocked by the barbarians in the northern wilderness and had difficulty advancing.
Soon, the Western Army was also blocked by more than 300,000 barbarian soldiers, including more than 100,000 armored soldiers.
In the end, only the gathered eastern troops continued to advance northward, and finally arrived less than a thousand miles away from Sirius Lake.
At this time, the eastern army also formed three groups, the front of which was the left and right front three brigades of the right division of the Qinglong Army, plus Liu Feiyun's Yunliu Camp, totaling more than 14,000 people. This was the vanguard of the eastern army.
In the middle were the middle and rear brigades of the right division of the Qinglong Army, as well as the private armies of the divisions, counties and brigades drawn from California, and some relatively capable local militias, totaling 95,000 people. This was the main force of the Eastern Route Army.
At the end were a small number of state, county and division brigades, plus most of the local militia, totaling more than 60,000.
The three clusters are only a hundred miles apart.
On the sixth day of April, when Yunliu Camp was only six hundred miles away from Tianlang Lake, the situation suddenly changed.
Countless Northern Wilderness soldiers suddenly appeared and began to force the camps of the three vanguard brigades to gather together from all directions.
Soon, the First Battalion of the Third Brigade was pressed together, but was also surrounded by the Northern Wilderness Army.
"Damn it! How could these barbarians have so many armored soldiers! There are probably nearly 100,000 of them, and half of them are wearing armored uniforms!"
"Old Pan! Tell me! What should the three of us do? Should we hold our ground and wait for help, or break out and retreat immediately? If we break out, which direction should we go?"
"Looking at the posture of these barbarians, I'm afraid they won't give us much time to break out. So, my opinion is that the sooner the better! While the barbarians' encirclement is not yet solid, we should retreat south as soon as possible! Join the main force of the master!"
"Right, right, right! Brother Pan is right. We must break out and retreat southward as soon as possible! But, should we break out from one point or from more points?"
"In my opinion, if we focus on one point to break through, it will only allow the barbarians to concentrate their forces to intercept us. It is better to break through more points! Why don't we divide the camp into battalions, with each camp no more than one mile apart, so that the barbarians will be distracted and most of the camps will be able to break through!"
"Okay! In that case! Let's act now without further delay!"
After an emergency meeting, the three brigade commanders decided to retreat southward.
However, it was not easy to arrange the positions of the various battalions. If more than a dozen battalions broke out to the south at the same time, the more they were in the center, the higher the success rate would be! The closer they were to the edge, the lower the success rate would be.
The front brigade was in the middle, which was better. It was a bit difficult to arrange who was inside and who was outside for the two brigades on both sides. In the end, both Pan Wenjin and the commander of the left brigade chose the seemingly fairest distribution method, drawing lots.
Originally, Liu Feiyun didn't need to draw lots, after all, there were more children of wealthy families in the student camp than in other camps. For their safety, Pan Wenjin wanted to put the student camp in the innermost position.
But Liu Feiyun refused and also participated in the drawing of lots, and finally drew the most marginal position.
As soon as the results came out, those officers who came from wealthy families immediately turned pale.