I Xiaoxiong

Chapter 155 Falling Stars
Li Shizhong was lying on the sickbed, full of thoughts in his mind. His staff member Sun Liechen, his cousin Tengxiang Zuowei Commander Li Shiying, his cousin Deputy Marshal Guo Kan, Deputy General Yuan Heng, and other cronies, including his second son Li Zhaoxin, surrounded the big tent.

When he came back to his senses, he looked at the crowd and said with a smile, "I'm afraid it won't work."

When everyone heard this weak speech, they couldn't help but burst into tears.

It is always difficult for a hero to accept when he is old and sick.

Guo Kan looked at the appearance of his cousin Li Shizhong, and asked Li Zhaoxin in surprise: "Erlang, what's the matter, I returned it a few days ago."

Li Zhaoxin choked up and said, "I was holding on a few days ago."

Only then did Guo Kan understand why he hadn't gathered everyone to discuss matters in the past few days.

Li Shizhong raised his hand with difficulty and waved it, "Stop talking about this, I don't have much time left, and I don't know how long I can live. You should all know the battle report of Hezhou. Once news of the rebels comes out, they will be in turmoil."

"cough cough"

"It was a great opportunity, but I couldn't hold on anymore. Cough cough cough."

"Then send people to the rebel camp to call for battle, and let the rebels know the news of Wu Ni's defeat. They have no fighting spirit and Xue Julin will definitely retreat. The pursuit must be pursued, but not too much. Xue Julin's ability to use soldiers is not inferior to mine, so be careful not to be defeated by him."

"If the rebels don't retreat, Guo Kan, you can do the marshal's job, but you can't go to war, protect the food road, stick to the camp and wait for Deputy Marshal Zhang to preside over the overall situation."

"If I die, don't be mourned, so as not to shake the morale of the army"

"General Yuan, you take my tooth soldiers to patrol the camp, don't slack off."

After talking about the military deployment, Li Shizhong waved his hand and told the generals to leave, leaving only his second son Li Zhaoxin, fourth brother Li Shiying, and his aide Sun Liechen who had followed him for many years.

"Liechen, I said you will write, and write for me. I want to present the form to His Majesty."

When Li Zhaoxin heard it, he wanted to say something but finally swallowed it down, and moved a table to the side of the bed.

"Chen Shizhong said: The turmoil in the south of the Yangtze River has lasted for several months. As the generalissimo, I stayed in Tokyo, but lost Jianye. The crime of this minister is also because I think that the peace of Jiangnan lies in the hearts of the people, and the conquest is second."

While Sun Liechen was writing, he was secretly startled, this is a legacy.
In Li Shizhong's dictation, the first is an apology, and then it is the strategy of Shangping Jiangnan.Finally, I am grateful for not being able to meet you in person.
After speaking, Sun Liechen withdrew, leaving only his brothers and nephews, Li Shiying, Li Zhaoxin, and Li Zhaoyi, the Li family members.

"It's a pity, I can't see your mother and your brother anymore, hehehe"

"Jianye."

The last words on his deathbed were to his second son Li Zhaoxin. "Erlang, when you reenter Jianye with the army in the future, you can sprinkle a glass of wine on the city gate."

The flickering candles finally survived the storm.In September of the 18th year of Xuanjia, Li Shizhong, the Duke of Wei, died of illness in the army.

Deputy Marshal Guo Kan obeyed his last order, let the army go out to challenge for several days, and publicized the defeat of the enemy.

Two days later, Xue Julin led the army to retreat slowly.

Guo Kan ordered No. 1 Chongyi and Cao Guozhong to cooperate in the pursuit, and fought for half a day with the [-] troops in the rear led by Xue Julin himself.

The cavalry and infantry of the official army cooperated with each other, and Xue Julin led [-] infantry to form a stronghold.

As soon as the two sides met, they entered the most brutal hand-to-hand combat on the narrow battlefield.

The two armies are the elite of each side, and they are usually thrown up at the last moment to be the winner, but now they start to be consumed as soon as the battle starts.

Cao Guozhong's Hengye Army was an elite soldier under the rule of the Governor's Mansion of Xiangzhou, King of Chu. He often sat in Jingchu and suppressed barbarians.

This is why both Li Shizhong and Guo Kan will let Cao Guozhong be the front of the vanguard.

The former capital of the Yokoye Army, Yuhou Tian Xingzong, led the elite heavy armored infantry of the headquarters, all armed with heavy axes and long spears, and rushed straight to the headquarters of the Southern Army.

The southern army who faced this heavy step was also an elite group, the personal guards of the governor Xue Julin, all of them were wearing heavy armor, and the weapons in their hands were mainly spears and axes, led by his nephew Xue Changqing.

The two armies met head-on, spears stabbed and axes slashed, and the blood and flesh of the killing flew everywhere.

Then Fifth Chongyi began to use cavalry to harass the southern army's flanks, but Xue Julin had already prepared for it. The two thousand crossbowmen under him were the only crossbowmen in the southern army. Shooting against each other, the cavalry of the Northern Army did not take advantage of it for a while.

In the end, after the crossbow arrows were shot empty, there was no flaw in the formation of the Southern Army, and the cavalry did not find a breakthrough to charge into the formation.

The two sides fought for half a day, both of them suffered heavy casualties, and in the end they could only stop their troops.

What Cao Guozhong and Fifth Chongyi didn't expect was that when they led their troops back to the camp, the military order they received was not to take a break and pursue the chase, but to withdraw their troops tomorrow.

Cao Guozhong looked at Guo Kan in surprise and said, "Deputy Marshal Guo, is this really the command of the Grand Marshal?"

At this time, everyone understood that today's pursuit had no results because the rebels still had a breath, and if they wanted to defeat the rebels, they needed to take this opportunity to break up their breath.

"This is exactly the military order of the Generalissimo."

"I want to see the Generalissimo."

"No. The Generalissimo occasionally feels the cold and sees no outsiders. Both Li Erlang and Sun Junshi can testify to this matter."

Cao Guozhong heard about Li Zhaoxin and Sun Liechen, and saw that they both nodded to him, so he could only believe that what Guo Kan said was correct.

However, the Southern Army who did not wait for the Northern Army to pursue them was a little surprised.

At night, Xue Julin was wearing armor, and returned to his tent after inspecting the barracks. After hearing the scouts' report, he felt a little strange.

"It's strange, the official army didn't come to pursue today? Instead, they pulled out the camp and retreated?"

In the military tent, there are the governor Liu Taiqing, the prince of Yu Xu Cheng, Chen Jiao, nephew Xue Changqing, brothers Xue Juye and Xue Jucheng, the eldest son Xue Changfeng, and other trusted followers.

"In the battle yesterday, we also suffered a lot of losses from the officers and soldiers. Maybe the officers and soldiers are afraid of fighting?" Nephew Xue Changqing tried to say.

Xue Juye also echoed, "Yesterday, the officers and soldiers lost at least a thousand people in the First World War. Of course, we are similar. Maybe the officers and soldiers feel that they have a chance to win and want to slow down."

Xue Julin looked down at the map, then shook his head, "No, this is not Li Shizhong's style. Who is Duke Wei? In the Battle of Yubiaochuan, he dared to ambush Lord Qingtang with only [-] elite soldiers. In the end, the ambush failed, and others persuaded him to retreat, but he directly turned the ambush into a frontal defeat of the [-] Qingtang army."

"The public soldiers of the state of defense will never look forward and backward like this. I always thought it was wrong, but I didn't think about it clearly."

"This is not his way. The news of King Wu's defeat came the day before yesterday. On the same day, officers and soldiers shouted and publicized this matter outside the camp gate. It made our army lose their minds."

"Changqing, were there any prisoners in the battle the day before yesterday?"

Xue Changqing nodded and said, "There are a few, but I didn't find anything useful."

"Go and ask, how many days has the Duke of Wei Li Shizhong not shown up?"

"promise."

After a while, Xue Changqing came back and said, "Those prisoners said that they haven't seen Li Shizhong coming for at least seven or eight days."

When Xue Julin heard this, he immediately slapped his fists and said, "That's right, it's not like Li Shizhong is commanding the army at all."

"If he was there, he wouldn't just let the Northern Army's camp make public announcements that day, but the whole army would be mobilized to directly attack our army."

"Yesterday, we will not only send an army to pursue!"

"If my guess is right, Li Shizhong must have something wrong with his health. Either he died, or he was too sick to take matters seriously. Otherwise, with his temperament, how could he not show up in the barracks for seven or eight days? He is not Fu Maoxiu!"

It can be said that Xue Julin knew the noble and famous generals of the imperial court like the palm of his hand, and had in-depth research on each of them's combat style and military habits.

Therefore, as long as Li Shizhong is a famous general, as long as he is healthy, he will not show up in front of the soldiers for more than three days!

"This is a god-sent opportunity!" Xue Julin clapped his hands on the table.

Xue Julin, who discovered the clues, led thousands of infantry early in the morning of the second day, three of which had 500 infantry, and all the more than [-] cavalry turned back again.

Then traveled quickly for three days, and raided the Northern Army on the night of the third day.

Eight camps were broken in a row, and more than [-] people were beheaded.

However, when they reached the barracks of Cao Guozhong's Hengye army, they were counterattacked by the northern army, losing more than [-] soldiers.

The furious Deputy Marshal Guo Kan personally led the elite cavalry in pursuit, but was caught in an ambush by Xue Julin and suffered heavy losses.

Guo Kan rode a horse and held a long spear, criss-crossing the enemy's formation. Later, his mount tripped and he held a long sword, killing dozens of enemies.

Then Fifth Chongyi led his cavalry to arrive, defeated Xue Julin's ambush and rescued Guo Kan.

Under a chaotic battle, both the northern and southern armies suffered a lot of damage, and they lost all fighting spirit, so they had to retreat separately.

It was not until the Northern Army returned to Pengze that the whole army died and reported the funeral to the imperial court.

Li Shizhong, Duke of the State of Wei, died in the army.

(End of this chapter)