Traveling through the early Tang Dynasty starts with hanging

Chapter 1416 Night Battle (Continued )

The first to arrive were the more than a thousand Tang cavalry holding torches, approaching from far away like fire dragons.

Shuang Shiluo, who personally served as the vanguard, felt anxious when he saw Cheng Mingzhen being knocked away. The Tang army's infantry, which had only a hundred remaining soldiers, moved to both sides.

With the speed of his horse, Shuang Shiluo held his spear in both hands, shouted with eyes wide open, and rushed into the formation with dozens of guards around him like heavy hammers, forcing the incoming Turkic cavalry back.

After all, the mouth of the valley was narrow, so Shuang Shiluo turned his horse's head and led the army to attack the east side, so that the subsequent troops could make up for it as soon as possible.

But when the Turks saw that their success fell short when they were about to break through Feihu Trail, they were unwilling to give up. The troops continued to surge forward, and the overwhelming rain of arrows rained down. Tang Army knights were shot off their horses.

For this passage that may be life-threatening, a brutal fight unfolded within a few inches. Shuang Shiluo's Ma Shan had already gone to nowhere. He was holding a long knife in each hand and was slashing wildly in the formation, splashing blood. A face.

Cheng Mingzhen, who was helped up, still had blood on the corners of his mouth. He shook off the guards who were trying to pull him back. He wanted to shout something loudly, but a stream of blood poured out of his mouth.

"Don't pile up at the mouth of the valley, go to the two wings..." Cheng Minzhen said in a hoarse voice, pulling the guards, "Let the cavalry dismount and the infantry attack...quickly!"

More than a thousand Tang cavalry arrived and pushed the Turks back slightly. Both sides lost the most important speed of the cavalry. The reinforcements that came later were also cavalry. Filling them in at this time would not have much effect, not to mention that they were still in the area. At night, the terrain was uneven and wide, which was not conducive to cavalry.

On the contrary, the infantry is more flexible and more effective...the most important thing is that it can expand the space. Even when he was seriously injured, Cheng Mingzhen made a wise enough choice.

Hundreds of cavalrymen dismounted and extended their swords to the two wings. Xue Zhong, the general manager of Beizhou who had just arrived, personally led his personal guards to seize the hill on the north side.

After three moments of fierce fighting, Shuang Shiluo's helmets had been knocked off, and he was still fighting in the formation like a mad tiger. The armor on the Tang army's soldiers played an important role in offsetting the Turks' military advantage.

Cheng Mingzhen was no longer able to fight any more and could only lean on the corpse of a war horse, sometimes looking at the battle situation that he could not see clearly, and sometimes looking back at the Flying Fox Trail passage.

I don't know how long it took, but the fire dragon gradually appeared in the dark night again. Cheng Minzhen coughed twice violently, feeling that his throat was filled with the smell of blood. The army finally arrived.

The first to arrive was the Three Thousand Tang Cavalry led by Tian Liuan. After leaving the valley, the situation was quickly stabilized. Tian Liuan took over for Cheng Mingzhen, who was unable to get up, and ordered the two Shiluo soldiers in front to move sideways. The Three Thousand Tang Cavalry were divided into three groups. After three consecutive charges, Tian Liuan finally arrived. Let the Turks choose to give up temporarily.

"Infantry?"

"Six thousand infantry are on the way." Tian Liuan breathed a sigh of relief and asked his bodyguard to bandage Cheng Mingzhen's wounds.

But in fact, there were not many wounds on Cheng Mingzhen's body. The injuries were mainly caused by being hit by the war horse... that is, he turned sideways first, otherwise he would be hit in the chest and would be disabled even if he died.

"The Turks have retreated." Xue Zhong rushed back panting, "Fortunately, we came in time."

Cheng Mingzhen and the generals had made detailed arrangements for this night attack, but they did not expect that there would be so many Turkic troops in Yuzhou and near Laiyuan County near Feihu Trail.

"They want to escape from the Flying Fox Trail..." Shuang Shiluo thought for a moment, "Fortunately, they arrived in time, otherwise it would be difficult to block the Flying Fox Trail."

Hearing that Xue Zhong and Shuang Shiluo both said that they were lucky to have arrived in time, Cheng Mingzhen smiled miserably, "Huang Junhan..."

A quarter of an hour later, a corpse was brought back. The armor on the body was full of arrows but was also damaged. The eyes were still wide open and the face was still stained with blood. The fatal long knife was inserted from Huang Junhan's ribs and straight into the body. Everyone around the soldiers looked sad. Except for Cheng Mingzhen, all those present were direct descendants of Li Shimin... They were all colleagues of Huang Junhan during the Battle of Hulao in Luoyang.

Not only Huang Junhan was alone, but the thousands of warriors who served as the vanguard experienced fighting in the fortress, rushing into the battle with Huang Junhan, and fighting against the Turks at the mouth of the valley with Cheng Mingzhen. Only less than a hundred people survived.

Even Cheng Mingzhen himself was seriously injured and found it difficult to get up.

Even the first batch of reinforcements, more than a thousand Tang cavalry, who arrived first, suffered 30% losses.

Such a tragic battlefield cost such a heavy price, but it was worth it, at least in the eyes of generals such as Cheng Mingzhen and Shuang Shiluo.

Huang Junhan and nearly a thousand other soldiers tied up the Turks with their lives and delayed until Tian Liuan arrived with his army and successfully blocked Feihu Trail, blocking the Turks troops who were preparing to escape from Feihu Trail tomorrow.

The pale-faced Cheng Mingzhen put his hands on the ground and tried hard to get up but failed in the end. He looked at Tian Liuan with a wry smile and said, "I'll leave everything to Duke Dao."

Tian Liuan was not polite, nodded and said: "Brother Mingzhen stayed in the stronghold to recuperate. When the infantry arrives, I will lead the army to the west."

Xue Zhong hesitated and said in a low voice: "King Si of Wei ordered us to break through Feihu Trail and capture Lingqiu to prevent the Turks from escaping from the north of Yuzhou. However, we just interrogated the prisoners and found out that the number of Turks in Yuzhou is about six to seven thousand... …”

Naturally, Hebei had no shortage of troops, but Cheng Mingzhen mobilized troops twice from Jingjing into Hedong. Later, he was ordered to go north to Yizhou to attack Feihujing, and mobilized government troops from Dingzhou, Hengzhou, Mozhou and other places.

In other words, there are naturally Tang troops in Jizhou, Weizhou, and Dezhou in Hebei, but they will definitely not be able to reach them in a short time... and they will not have any effect on the current situation.

Tian Liuan only has more than 4,000 cavalry and 6,000 infantry in his hands. Facing six or seven thousand Turks... Defeat is impossible, but it is really beyond his power to capture Lingqiu and block the Turks' escape route from Yuzhou north. .

The most important thing is that Tian Liuan, Xue Zhong, and Shuang Shiluo all rushed north from Bingzhou. After arriving, Cheng Minzhen also informed King Wei Si of the overall plan... If Su Dingfang and Yuchi Gong really succeeded in blocking Yanmen Pass, the Tang army in Hebei would have already With the Flying Fox Trail blocked, the northern part of Yuzhou was the only escape route for the Turkic army.

There are other passages, but they can accommodate tens of thousands of troops to escape quickly, so they can only go through Weizhou.

Under this situation, if nearly 10,000 troops wanted to capture Lingqiu and hold it firmly, not to mention Xue Zhong, even Tian Liuanye had no confidence.

"Let's give it a try." Tian Liu'an thought for a moment and said: "Leave a thousand infantry and a thousand cavalry to garrison the fort. The rest of the troops will be reorganized and march westward after dawn."

"The southern part of Yuzhou is mountainous, and the Turkic cavalry cannot carry out its operations. It is also difficult to make a detour to attack Feihu Trail. At least there is no need to worry about being attacked from the front and back."

Shuang Shiluo and Xue Zhong didn't say anything else. Judging from the current situation, they could only do their best and obey fate.

But in fact, the situation is worse than they imagined.

(End of this chapter)