weaving

Chapter 1372 Rout
Although Cheng Zhengshan led the cavalry to turn around and rush back to the gate of Yuyuan Village, he was still a step too late...

How could those hungry civilians guarding the gate withstand the frontal charge of the cavalry?
Before Cao Shixi's cavalry rushed to the gate of the village, they had already fled completely, and did not even think of closing the gate - this was simply - opening the gate to welcome the soldiers!
Faced with such a good opportunity, Cao Shixi would naturally rush as fast as he could, so how could he let it go easily?
He led less than 500 elite cavalrymen under his command, whipped their horses, and rushed directly into the enemy army's Yuyuan camp. Although Cheng Zhengshan led the cavalry to return for support, he was still one step short.

However, he was unwilling to give up, and led his cavalry to follow Cao Shixi's cavalry and rushed into the Yuyuan camp...

Behind them was a sea of ​​government infantry. A small number of them were the remnants of the army led by Peng Chengkun, the commander on the left side of the village gate, and most of them were the 500 infantrymen who had followed Cao Shixi to provide support. They had been trotting along behind the cavalry, and only now had the front few rows of infantry appeared, rushing straight towards the wide-open village gate.

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The core of the Yuyuan Camp was the original Yuyuan Village, but the space inside the village was limited and could not accommodate a large army. Tian Jianxiu then built another wooden village outside, thus forming two defense systems.

The outer wooden stronghold was occupied by starving civilians and a small number of elite cavalry and infantry, while the inner stronghold was where Tian Jianxiu's personal cavalry and the army's food and fodder were located, and it was also the core of the Yuyuan camp.

Of course, now that the infantry had been transferred elsewhere, all that was left in Yuyuan were the three thousand cavalry, except for the starving civilians. Even the starving civilians were much fewer than before, with only about five thousand left.

Now, as Cao Shixi led his cavalry into the camp, the hungry servants and the famine victims had no intention of resisting and fled into the deserted Yuyuan Village...

About a thousand people were blocked outside the door by the hungry people who had escaped into the inner camp earlier because they were slow to act!
Looking at the tightly closed gate of Yuyuan Village, they were too tired to curse. Many hungry people simply knelt on the open space in front of the gate, crying for their parents, and even though the government troops were riding towards them in the distance, they did not even have the strength to continue running for their lives.

The sound of horses' hooves hitting the ground rose and fell, like an endless stream of thousands of troops. The shouts of killing also kept beating the trembling hearts of the hungry people, making them silent and afraid to move.

Cao Shixi saw the situation from afar and knew that it would be difficult to break through the gate of the camp, so he shouted loudly on his warhorse: "Spread out the two wings and meet the enemy... First deal with the cavalry, then attack the inner camp."

Although judging from the number of cavalry alone, Cao Shixi's troops had more than 200 fewer cavalry than Cheng Zhengshan, he knew in his heart that there were nearly a thousand infantrymen behind them, rushing towards this side.

As long as they can hold out for a while and wait for the infantry to rush up, they can attack from both sides and surely defeat the 700-plus bandit cavalry on the opposite side. Then the remaining starving people will not be a threat.

Even the inner camp of Yuyuan will collapse by then!

When Cheng Zhengshan led his cavalry back, he saw that the group of government cavalry did not engage in battle with them, but just fled to both wings, always keeping a distance of thirty or forty steps from them.

Cheng Zhengshan, who was anxious, wanted to take the opportunity to rush into the inner camp of Yuyuan and hold on until help.

But who could have thought that the thousand hungry slaves would dare to ignore his orders at this moment. No matter how he commanded his cavalry to shout and scold, they remained indifferent and did not react at all.

The road to the camp, which was so close at hand, was blocked by the starving people and turned into an insurmountable chasm!
If this situation had happened in the past, Cheng Zhengshan would have definitely done nothing and immediately ordered all the starving people standing in the way to be killed, leaving no one alive.

But in the current situation, how can he have the time to do these things?

Cheng Zhengshan immediately divided his cavalry into three parts. In the first part, he personally led 300 cavalrymen to chase the main officer of the government army, Cao Shixi, who had rushed into the camp; the second part, also consisting of 300 cavalrymen, chased another part of the government cavalry; the third part was a cavalry of more than 100 cavalrymen, who turned around and rushed towards the outer camp gate, intending to stop the government infantry who had just followed them in.

Before leaving, Cheng Zhengshan yelled at the group of starving people in front of the camp gate in Yuyuan: "Don't just stand there and watch. If you don't kill the soldiers, no one will survive!"

He was shouting this to the hungry people blocking the door, and also to the servants and hungry people on the wall of the inner camp...

After Cheng Zhengshan finished shouting, he whipped his horse and chased Cao Shixi without caring about the effect. Although his arrangement seemed harmless, in such an emergency, dividing the troops was a taboo.

There was nothing wrong with Cheng Zhengshan dividing his cavalry into three groups, but he should concentrate two elite groups to encircle Cao Shixi's cavalry. As long as they were defeated, it would not be difficult to drive the remaining cavalry out of the camp.

What a pity... What a pity, the last chance for a comeback was wasted by Cheng Zhengshan!
As more than a thousand infantrymen outside rushed into the camp, Cheng Zhengshan became the disadvantaged party.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Cheng Zhengshan sighed in his heart. Feeling extremely helpless, he led the remaining 600-odd cavalrymen, rushed out of the Yuyuan camp, and fled to the south.

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By noon, the fighting on the western front was almost over.

All the government troops led by Chen Yongfu suffered casualties, among which the troops led by Hu Zichen and Cao Shixi suffered the heaviest casualties, while the troops led by Zhang Dechang suffered the least casualties.

After defeating Du Kewu's bandits, Zhang Dechang only left a few infantrymen to clean up the battlefield, and then personally led his troops north to assist Chen Yongfu.

However, since both Chen Yongfu and Tian Jianxiu were cavalrymen, they clashed and fought back and forth, sometimes heading east, sometimes heading west, and the position of the battlefield was always changing.

It was not until Chen Yongfu trapped Tian Jianxiu on the mound that Zhang Dechang arrived with his troops. He just happened to meet Hou Daqing, Jiao Cheng, Li Jianquan and others who had come to support him, and he directly joined the battle.

It was the timely arrival of the Baodu Biao Battalion led by Zhang Dechang that helped to hold off the bandits' counterattack. When the cavalry brigade under Chen Yongfu came to their rescue, the two sides worked together to repel the bandits.

However, due to the interference of Hou Daqing, Jiao Cheng and others, Tian Jianxiu found an opportunity and led dozens of cavalry soldiers and horses to rush down the mound and escape from the encirclement of the government troops.

Although Tian Jianxiu escaped with his life, he was also seriously injured. During the melee, he was hit on the back by a soldier's sledgehammer. Blood kept gushing out of the corners of his mouth, and it seemed that his internal organs had suffered considerable damage.

Moreover, there were more than ten arrows stuck in his body, with the chest and left abdomen being the most seriously injured. Blood had stained large areas of his clothes red. He had even changed the warhorse under his crotch several times, and it was no longer his own mount.

Tian Jianxiu first made a circle to meet up with Hou Daqing and his men, then rushed eastward for a while before turning north and retreating towards the Yuyuan camp.

On the way, they met the defeated soldiers of Cheng Zhengshan who had escaped from Yuyuan. Knowing that the Yuyuan camp had been robbed, they turned back south and prepared to look for the bandits of Dang Shousu.

Although they escaped the officers and soldiers of Chen Yongfu and Zhang Dechang, they were confronted by Hu Zichen's troops who were heading north. The two sides immediately fought each other, resulting in casualties on both sides.

Because Tian Jianxiu was afraid that the soldiers would come to help him and he would be surrounded again, he did not dare to fight. He found an opportunity and led his troops to leave the battlefield and rushed northward...

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This was just the war on the Western Front. On this day, the Battle of Neustadt officially began.

The entire battlefield stretched for dozens of miles from east to west and from north to south. There were smoke and fighting everywhere. Both the government troops and the bandits suffered heavy casualties. I wonder how many people died in this war of the century!