Chapter 528: Half-crossing and attacking
In Baima County, 50,000 Sui troops were ready. The boats, wooden boards and iron chains for building the pontoon bridge were all ready. Even the wooden boards had been nailed to the boats. The only thing left was to fasten the iron chains. They only needed to push the boats into the water and the pontoon bridge would be completed in one hour.

Inside the big tent, Commander Shi Wansui was still waiting for news from Yuwen Shu. In the past few years, Shi Wansui had been recuperating at home. He looked very old, with white hair and beard, and he had completely lost the demeanor of the number one master of the Sui Dynasty.

Shi Wansui had followed Emperor Yang Guang in the attack on Tuyuhun. Yang Guang had a good impression of him, so he re-employed him for the attack on Hebei.

Shi Wansui certainly did not want to let the emperor down and wanted to do something big, but he was very disgusted with Yuwen Shu. Yuwen Shu’s appointment as the commander-in-chief of the northern route made him feel as uncomfortable as if he had eaten a fly.

But there was no way out. The emperor trusted Yuwen Shu, so he had to accept it.

Inside the big tent, Shi Wansui, who looked a little old, was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back. Judging from the time, Yuwen Shu should have arrived in Ji County. According to the emperor’s arrangement before the troops were dispatched, Yuwen Shu’s army was responsible for attracting the main force of the rebels in Hebei, and then Shi Wansui would unexpectedly cross the Yellow River and seize Liyang Warehouse on the north bank of the Yellow River.

The strategic position of Liyang Warehouse is too important, and it is also the core mission of their Northern Expedition. As long as they can capture Liyang Warehouse, nothing else matters. With tens of millions of stones of grain and millions of pieces of cloth, as well as a large number of weapons and armor in Liyang Warehouse, they can use Liyang Warehouse as a logistical foundation to increase their military forces on a large scale. As long as they have enough troops, there will be no problem in wiping out the Hebei rebels.

Now the initiative is in Yuwen Shu’s hands. It depends on whether he can attract the main force of the enemy. Yuwen Shu has 80,000 troops, which can at least attract 100,000 enemy troops. The enemy still has to defend its old nest in Anyang, so the troops left in Liyang Warehouse will not exceed 10,000. The opportunity for their Eastern Army has come.

At this time, the sound of horse hooves could be heard outside, and someone could be heard reporting loudly, “General Yuwen, urgent news!”

As expected, they came. Shi Wansui hurried out of the tent. A cavalryman knelt on one knee and reported, “General Yuwen has an urgent letter for General Shi!”

After that, the messenger soldier handed over an express letter. Shi Wansui hurriedly took the letter and opened it. It was indeed a handwritten letter from Yuwen Shu. The letter said that he had led a large army into Ji County and encountered the main force of the enemy near Ji County. The two sides confronted each other in Ji County. The number of troops on the other side was unknown, but it was estimated to be around 100,000.

Yuwen Shu suggested that Shi Wansui’s army march north as soon as possible. Shi Wansui was overjoyed. Ji County was more than 300 miles away from Liyangcang, and the main force of the enemy was indeed attracted there.

He immediately gave the order: “Pass on my military order, build a pontoon bridge, and let the army cross the river!”

The Sui army quickly took action. Floating boats were pushed off the river and iron chains were hooked on. A long floating bridge appeared on the river like a necklace. The soldiers then put up wooden boards. In less than an hour, the first two-mile-long floating bridge was completed.

The army began to march northward lightly, and craftsmen began to build a second pontoon bridge for horses and supplies.

The 50,000-strong army marched northward in a very fast speed. Shi Wansui also crossed the pontoon bridge. After about 30,000 people passed, hundreds of small boats of the Hebei Army suddenly appeared on the river. They were full of firewood and there was a soldier on each boat. The boats were drifting downstream and were about to hit the pontoon bridge. The soldiers on the small boats lit the firewood and jumped into the Yellow River. Hundreds of boats instantly turned into hundreds of fireboats and crashed into the pontoon bridge together. Amid screams, the pontoon bridge also caught fire and was soon burned into two sections. The soldiers on the boats fell into the water while fleeing and were immediately submerged by the Yellow River.

Of the more than 3,000 soldiers on the pontoon bridge, only a few hundred managed to escape, while the rest capsized and fell into the Yellow River, dying. Shi Wansui was stunned, and suddenly he felt that he had been tricked. The enemy had been prepared, and they were likely to have fallen into a trap.

At this moment, there were loud shouts of killing all around. Thirty thousand cavalry and fifty thousand infantry came from all directions and trapped the 30,000 Sui army on a two-mile-wide river bank. The Sui soldiers could not withstand the cavalry’s charge at all. They were cut into countless pieces by the cavalry and had to kneel down and surrender in despair.

Shi Wansui led thousands of people to try their best to break out, but there were too many enemy troops, and they were stacked up in layers, so they could not fight their way out. His thousands of soldiers became fewer and fewer, and finally only a few hundred were left. They were surrounded by 20,000 enemy troops. The enemy soldiers shouted: “Capture Shi Wansui alive!”

Shi Wansui sighed, “I have fought on the battlefield for decades, and finally died on the battlefield. It can be considered a worthy death!”

He held the sword horizontally and slashed the neck hard. A famous general, Shi Wansui, was finally killed in an enemy ambush. More than 7,000 of the 30,000-strong army were killed, and the rest of the army all surrendered.

But this was not the end. Xiao Moke, who was ambushing on the south bank, suddenly attacked with 30,000 troops. The 17,000 troops who had not yet crossed the river had no desire to fight and were defeated. The deputy general Zhou Luohou was shot dead by Xiao Moke with an arrow. The army fled in all directions. Countless people surrendered, more than 12,000 people, and all the tents and supplies fell into the hands of the Hebei army.

Three days later, upon learning that the Eastern Army had been annihilated, Yuwen Shu led his army to slowly retreat back to Linqing Pass and stationed in Xinxiang County.

At the same time, the Eastern Army was completely destroyed. The news of Shi Wansui’s death reached Luoyang, shocking the entire court. Emperor Yang Guang was extremely sad and ordered a three-day stay to mourn Shi Wansui’s death.

Prince Guande Yang Xiong immediately wrote a letter to the emperor, pointing out that the fundamental reason for the failure was that he underestimated the enemy. He knew nothing about the enemy army, thinking that it was a motley crowd of hundreds of thousands who were vulnerable to a single blow. He naturally divided his troops to attack them, and finally the enemy seized the opportunity to attack them halfway across the river, and the entire Eastern Army was wiped out.

Yuwen Shu also wrote a letter to the emperor, admitting their mistakes. The enemy army had more than 110,000 or 120,000 troops, but at least 200,000. They sent 100,000 troops to confront them, and then sent 80,000 troops to raid Shi Wansui’s troops. This was a huge mistake they made when formulating the strategy. Yuwen Shu resigned from the position of commander-in-chief to take responsibility for the defeat.

Emperor Yang Guang knew very well that it was his underestimation of the enemy that led to the defeat. He did not accept Yuwen Shu’s resignation. Instead, he sent people to comfort and reward the army and ordered Yuwen Shu to lead the army to continue to defend Henei County to prevent the rebels from attacking Luoyang from Henei County.

Yang Guang then appointed Zhang Xutuo as the Defense Commissioner of Henan Province and stationed an army of 50,000 in Chenliu. He temporarily did not attack Hebei. Yang Guang also sent envoys to the Youzhou Governor’s Office to do two things. One was to recognize Luo Yi as the new Youzhou Governor, and the other was to order Luo Yi to lead his army to cooperate with the court to suppress the rebellion of the King of Qi.

At the same time, Emperor Yang Guang ordered Yang Yichen, governor of Yunzhou, to lead an army of 20,000 to attack Jingxing in the south, creating a fourth channel to attack Hebei.

The shadow of war loomed over Hebei and the Central Plains, but the news of the Sui army’s disastrous defeat in its first attack on Hebei triggered serious consequences. The Baohui, which had been silent for a long time, began to stir up trouble again.

(End of this chapter)