Jiuxi

Chapter 939: The Moment of the Decisive Battle

The Jing army's cavalry was not completely defeated, but they were already in a passive position, and Asugei did not risk the risk of the formation collapsing by forcing a turn.

Generally speaking, with the Jing Army cavalry being caught on the tail by the Feiyu Army, they could only gallop northwards in an effort to shake off the enemy. However, how could the Feiyu Army waste this advantage that they had worked so hard to gain?
In the biting cold wind, Asugei's face was solemn, but he showed no anger or panic.

He thought of the emperor's instructions last night, and felt half disappointed and half relieved.

The disappointment was with himself. If he could seize the loopholes of the Feiyu Army and trap this enemy army, he would not even need to use the backup plan laid out by the emperor to achieve the established goals before the war, thus allowing the emperor to have more sufficient power to oppress the Qi army.

Fortunately, Emperor Jing had made arrangements in advance. Even though Asugei's subordinates were at a disadvantage, it was just a trap that had been set long ago.

Now the disadvantages of Asugai's army have made this trap almost natural and flawless.

The Feiyu Army was in hot pursuit, and the two cavalry units were chasing the clouds and the moon. They soon moved away from the original battlefield and were about to enter the vast plain to the east of the Jing Army's main camp.

At this moment, the sound of intense drum beats rang out from the Qi army's position. After hearing it, the Feiyu army cavalry suddenly slowed down.

But before they gave up the pursuit and retreated to their own positions, they heard continuous horse hoof sounds in the distance. They saw another group of Jing army cavalry coming from the west, crossing the open space between the main camp of Jing army and the more than 40,000 infantry led by Abuhan, and rushing straight to the back of Feiyu army.

This was the reason why Emperor Jingdi had only deployed a cavalry unit of 10,000 people before, and it was also the reason why Asugei remained calm in the face of danger.

The Feiyu Army's mission was to protect the right wing of their own formation, and they completed this mission perfectly, but a little too perfectly.

Li Bingxue was very courageous and had great trust in the soldiers of the Feiyu Army. Facing powerful enemies, he still dared to use difficult tactics. Relying on an eight-character spiral formation that rarely appeared in cavalry duels, he successfully bit the tail of the Jing Army cavalry and then tried his best to expand the results of the battle. All this changed so quickly and suddenly that when Lu Chen discovered that they had left the main formation, he hastily issued an order to retreat, but it was still a step too late.

At this moment, another cavalry of the Jing army, under the order of Emperor Jing who had foresight, successfully intercepted the retreat route of the Feiyu army.

The general leading the troops was named Saipuli. He, Asugei, Pucha, Ali and Yongji were known as the Four Horses under Emperor Jing. All four were capable and skilled cavalry generals.

He was a man of fiery temper and superb martial arts, especially good at charging into battle. This was the most suitable battle situation for him to perform well. He immediately roared, held his spear, and charged forward on his horse, leading his troops to attack the flank and rear of the Feiyu Army.

Li Bingxue judged the situation the moment the cavalry appeared. It was very difficult for her to lead the Feiyu Army to retreat at this time. After all, the Jing Army cavalry in front had not yet collapsed, let alone lost its combat effectiveness, and the pursuers behind were already approaching, so she shouted sternly: "Huangfu!"

"exist!"

"Divide the troops to resist! Detour to the south!"

"Follow the order!"

After a brief communication, the two main generals divided their forces again. Huangfu Yu continued to lead his troops to pursue the enemies in front to prevent them from turning too calmly and forming a pincer attack. Li Bingxue personally led thousands of elite troops to turn to the left front and faced the nearly 10,000 cavalry led by Sepuli with some difficulty.

Even though her response was decisive and accurate, the Feiyu Army still inevitably fell into a tough battle.

The flag remains standing, but the pressure on their shoulders is growing heavier.

From the time Asugei led his troops to attack to the time the Feiyu Army was surrounded, less than half an hour had passed. The infantry of the two armies were still fighting hard on the main battlefield. Xu Gui simply bandaged his eyebrow and still tenaciously led his troops to support. The Zhenwei Army, which belonged to the Beijing Army, was inspired and infected by their comrades and actually survived the most difficult initial stage on the battlefield. They stabilized their position and fought against the enemy together with the Fengfu Army.

Under the central army's royal flag, Lu Chen frowned as he looked towards the northeast where the two cavalry armies were already engaged in a melee.

Emperor Jing would definitely find a way to deal with the Dingbei Army or the Feiyu Army first. This was a problem he and Li Bingxue had discussed long ago, and they tended to believe that Emperor Jing would make the Feiyu Army the primary target.

The reason was that Emperor Jing could further determine the strength of the Qi army through Lu Chen's reaction.

So when Asugai's unit revealed a flaw, Li Bingxue chased after them without hesitation, and Lu Chen's reaction was just right, as he did not send an advance message to alert her to the trap.

However, even though he was mentally prepared, when he saw Li Bingxue and the Feiyu Army in dire straits, Lu Chen's heart was still in pain. It was not only because of the relationship between him and Li Bingxue, but more importantly, the Li family had paid too much for Da Qi, and Li Tianrun was still lying in bed, struggling to hold on.

However, seeing the soldiers in front of him fighting to the death, Lu Chen took a deep breath and said in a deep voice: "Send a message to Li Chengen."

Wang Jun, the secretary of the palace, immediately responded: "Please give the order, Your Majesty!"

He naturally also saw the situation of the Feiyu Army, and thought that Lu Chen would ask the Dingbei Army to go for support, so he couldn't help but speak in a high-spirited tone. Others around him had similar expressions. After all, the commander of the Feiyu Army was Lu Chen's wife. If she got into trouble, it would very likely shake the morale of the army and even affect Lu Chen's judgment as the commander-in-chief.

But what they heard was an extremely firm military order.

Lu Chen said without question: "The Dingbei Army will move forward immediately and attack the enemy's infantry flanks. At the same time, be careful to guard against the enemy's isolated cavalry outside the formation."

The Jing army has a total of three 10,000-man cavalry units. In addition to the 20,000 men currently surrounding the Feiyu army, there is another 10,000-man unit stationed behind the left rear of the Jing army's main formation, remaining motionless.

Wang Jun was stunned and said hesitantly: "Your Majesty..."

Lu Chen looked down, and his stern gaze shocked Wang Jun's heart. He quickly bowed and said, "I obey your orders!"

After a while, the Dingbei Army left their positions. Contrary to the expectations of the Jing Army's cavalry who had been keeping an eye on them, this elite cavalry, whose combat power was even stronger than that of the Feiyu Army, did not choose to bypass the formation to rescue Li Bingxue. Instead, they went straight forward and came to the main battlefield where the two armies' infantry were fighting.

They used their mobility to perform a circular shooting technique and quickly suppressed the left wing infantry of the Jing Army led by Hesheli, greatly reducing the pressure on the Zhenwei Army. After so many years of training, Li Chengen seemed to be inconspicuous, but in fact he had already built the Dingbei Army into an elite cavalry that was absolutely loyal to Lu Chen.

Looking at the noisy and tragic battlefield at this moment, Lu Chen's private instructions last night emerged in his mind. He couldn't help but turn his head to look at the Emperor's canopy in the Jing army formation in the distance, with a sharp cold light in his eyes.

All the movements of the Qi army were reported to Emperor Jing as quickly as possible.

"Your Majesty, the enemy..."

Sagai seemed to be hesitant to speak, looking a little worried.

Emperor Jing said calmly: "If you have something to say, just say it."

Sagai coughed and said cautiously: "I dare to say that the enemy's strength should not be underestimated."

This was the conclusion he came to after careful observation. From the stunning performance of the Qi army's infantry to the Feiyu army's tenacious will to take the lead and then not be afraid of a hard fight, such an opponent should be worthy of respect, and deliberately despising the other side is a very foolish act.

Emperor Jing nodded and said, "That's true. What do you suggest?"

Seeing that he looked calm, Sagai mustered up his courage and said, "Your Majesty, I don't think Lu Chen has any hidden murderous intentions. He just believes in the strength of the Qi army and intends to fight a decisive battle with our army in the hope of mutual destruction."

Emperor Jing said nothing, and stood up again and boarded the observation car.

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On the main battlefield ahead, the two armies' infantry were evenly matched. Originally, Abuhan relied on his advantage in troop strength to suppress the Qi army, but with the appearance of the Dingbei cavalry, the two sides gradually returned to a relatively balanced state.

On the southeast battlefield, 20,000 cavalrymen of the Jing Army were fighting fiercely with the Feiyu Army of Southern Qi. The Jing Army naturally had the upper hand, but at the moment it seemed that the Feiyu Army was very resilient and showed no obvious signs of collapse. Moreover, Li Bingxue did not fight to the death. Instead, she led the Feiyu Army to constantly try to break out of the encirclement of the Jing Army.

This was quite surprising to Emperor Jing. If Lu Chen was showing weakness on purpose, he should have immediately ordered the Dingbei Army to bypass from the rear, ostensibly to rescue the Feiyu Army, but in fact to hand over all the mobile forces, allowing the main force of the Qi Army to deal with unpredictable crises and lure Emperor Jing to launch an attack with his entire army.

But he did not do so. Instead, he ordered the Dingbei Army to rush forward to help the infantry on the main battlefield. Moreover, Emperor Jing saw very clearly that the Dingbei Army did not get involved in positional warfare and was always cruising on the edge of the battlefield. In this way, they could withdraw at any time to guard against the third 10,000-man cavalry unit that Emperor Jing had been suppressing and was useless.

Judging from this arrangement, Lu Chen's command was in line with the rules from beginning to end, and there was nothing treacherous about it. Just as Sagai said, he wanted to rely on the strength and resilience of the Qi army to have a head-on decisive battle.

Emperor Jing stood with his hands behind his back, pondering over and over again in his mind.

He knew that Lu Chen still had 20,000 to 30,000 men under his command, including the Panlong Army, the Ruyin Army, and thousands of his own troops. These were all the opponent's reserve forces.

Time passed bit by bit, and Emperor Jing quietly observed the battlefield without any impatience.

There were no new changes in the Qi army either.

The infantry could still hold on, but the Feiyu Army on the eastern battlefield gradually showed signs of decline. Asugei and Sepuri cooperated well, tightly entangled the Feiyu Army and continued to cause casualties.

Emperor Jing shifted his gaze to the Dingbei Army on the west side of the main battlefield, and finally spoke: "Pass the order, the sixth team of infantry will move forward and attack from the right wing of the battlefield to help Abuhan again."

"The minister obeys the order!"

A general took the order and left.

Before the war broke out, Emperor Jing deployed six teams of 10,000 people in front of his camp. He had previously mobilized 50,000 men, and now even the last 10,000 were sent up, and they were advancing from the right wing. The Dingbei cavalry on the left wing could only watch in despair.

Now, there are only 10,000 infantry led by Zhuge and 5,000 imperial troops around Emperor Jing, but the Jing army has already gained an overall advantage. How can the Qi army pose a threat to him?

Under the eager gaze of the civil and military officials, Emperor Jing raised his head slightly and said, "Go forward, I will personally beat the drum to cheer for the young men of Jing."

"The minister obeys the order!"

Everyone responded in unison, their excitement clearly evident.

The emperor beat the drum and moved his carriage forward, which meant that after a long period of observation and testing, Emperor Jing had finally decided to launch the final decisive battle.

Emperor Jing issued another decree, which was quickly passed to the rear. The soldiers of the Jing army who were sitting on the ground as burly as mountains slowly stood up. The servants around them began to put on armor for them. The tall horses snorted and made restless and bloodthirsty neighs.

Cheers suddenly rang out on the battlefield, because the canopy symbolizing Emperor Dajing finally moved towards the main battlefield in the south after staying for nearly two hours.

Get closer step by step.

Murderous aura rose into the sky.

……

(I have a severe toothache. I took some medicine and went to bed. I will continue tomorrow~)

(End of this chapter)