Thief Emperor

Chapter 582 Reward!

The Pinglu Army is also an old-fashioned vassal state!
Although the number of people Zhou Chang brought with him was small, only 5,000, but these people could definitely be considered elite troops among the Pinglu Army!
This time, the 5,000 Pinglu troops led the attack and rushed out of Jizhou directly, and Meng Qing was ordered to lead 2,000 Jiangdong troops out of the city to support them.

The two sides soon collided.

When the Pinglu Army was fighting fiercely with the Khitans, Meng Qing, holding a spear, led his troops into the enemy camp.

At this moment, he was just about a hundred feet away from Jizhou City and came to the place where the Khitans beheaded the Han people. At this time, out of the more than 700 Han people, only about 200 were still alive.

Meng Qing drew the sword from his waist, stepped forward and untied the ropes that bound the survivors, and shouted, "Run away, run away!"

Some of these people were so frightened that they stood there at a loss as to what to do.

Some of the calmer ones knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Meng Qing, and asked loudly: "Thank you for saving my life, General. May I ask your name?"

Meng Qing followed Li Yun to fight, initially just to repay Li Yun's kindness, to get on bad terms with the imperial court, and to avenge his family. He didn't feel that he was doing anything good or bad. Now that someone was kneeling in front of him and kowtowing, he suddenly felt an inexplicable emotion rising in his heart.

Meng Qing couldn't explain this emotion, but it was real.

Now he was on the battlefield. He was stunned for a moment, glanced at the people kneeling on the ground, and shouted, "Stop nagging and leave!"

These people also knew that they were on a battlefield, so they didn't dare to say much. After getting up, they turned around and ran away.

Finally, only about thirty people were left who were unwilling to leave. A middle-aged man looked at Meng Qing and said through gritted teeth: "General, my family has been killed or captured by the Khitans. I want to follow you and fight these Khitans!"

The thirty people behind him all had similar experiences and all wanted to follow Meng Qing.

Meng Qing didn't waste any words. After glancing at these people, he hesitated for a moment and said, "Without armor and weapons, going to the battlefield is like seeking death. You go back to Jizhou City and wait. I will talk to you after I finish this battle!"

He turned and ran towards the battlefield without looking back: "My name is Meng Qing!"

General Meng, holding a spear, strode towards the battlefield.

When Meng Qing first went to the battlefield, he did not use a spear, nor did he have any particular weapon. However, in the past two years, he should have been influenced by Li Yun, and after finding a spear and stick master, he began to specialize in spearmanship.

Today, he has made some achievements in marksmanship.

However, at this time, his intervention was not really needed on the front battlefield.

The Pinglu Army was not much inferior to the Khitans in infantry combat, and the two sides were entangled in the battle, making it difficult to determine the winner in a short period of time.

What Meng Qing had to do was to provide support from the side and at the same time keep an eye on the cavalry cruising nearby as much as possible.

"Crossbowman!"

Meng Qing shouted, and said, "Split up to the left and right. The Khitan cavalry just need to approach and shoot twice without aiming!"

It is unrealistic to stop the Khitan cavalry from entering the battlefield. All Meng Qing can do is to harass them and prevent them from entering the battlefield smoothly.

At this time, both sides on the front battlefield were already angry.

Khitan Khan Yelu Yi rode on a horse and joined the battlefield in person with a big knife in hand.

He was born a brave man, otherwise it would have been impossible for him to unify the fierce Khitan tribes at such a young age. His mount was also very tall, so he charged directly into the formation, wielding his long sword, and soon killed several Pinglu soldiers.

The Khitan Khan wiped the blood off his knife with the corpse of the Pinglu Army, and then shouted in a deep voice: "Cavalry, enter the battle! Cavalry, enter the battle!"

In the early days, the Khitan cavalry consisted only of light cavalry for harassment and guerrilla warfare. However, after Yelu Yi unified the Khitan tribes and conquered the Bohai Kingdom, the Khitan tribe had heavy cavalry that could charge into battle.

The scale is not very large, only three to five hundred people.

But it is enough.

These hundreds of armored cavalrymen rushed into the formation. Together with the men, horses and armor, they probably weighed over a thousand pounds. This kind of impact force was simply not something that ordinary infantry could withstand.

In just one charge, the Pinglu Army suffered heavy casualties.

Major General Zhou Chang gnashed his teeth in anger, but he was helpless and could only shout loudly: "Disperse, disperse!"

The Pinglu Army's formation dispersed and they collided with the Khitan infantry again. This time, they suffered a slight disadvantage.

At this time, outside the battlefield, Li Yun, Li Zheng and Xiao Heng on the Jizhou city wall were all watching the situation on the battlefield.

Li Yun and Li Zheng both used telescopes to watch, but Xiao Heng didn't have one and could only watch with his naked eyes. From time to time, he shamelessly borrowed a telescope from Li Yun to observe the battlefield.

After he handed the telescope back to Li Yun again, he couldn't help but say, "Mr. Li, this thing..."

"Can you sell me one?"

Li Yun looked at him and asked, "What price can the young general offer?"

Xiao Heng gritted his teeth and said, "I'll provide a hundred horses!"

Li Yun and Li Zheng exchanged a glance, then looked at Xiao Heng and said with a smile, "I'll think about it."

As for telescopes, it is acceptable to give out less than ten of them, because this thing must be deployed on a large scale in the army, especially distributed on a large scale among scouts, to have a more obvious effect.

A few sticks are of little use.

However, Xiao Heng was so anxious to buy it, he must not be using it himself, he must have copied it after buying it. However, he couldn't make transparent glass, if he wanted to copy it, he could only use pure natural crystal, the cost was too high, and it was impossible to mass produce it, so it was nothing to sell him some.

But the price may be negotiable.

Before Xiao Heng could speak, Li Zheng beside him whispered, "Go up, sound the horn."

Li Yun looked towards the battlefield.

At this time, the battlefield was already four or five miles away from Jizhou. If they retreated at this time, they could still withdraw calmly.

If we were any further away, we would probably be grabbed by the Khitans and have our butt bitten hard by the Khitans.

And at this time, the Khitans were indeed beginning to gain the upper hand.

Li Yun looked at the hundreds of Khitan heavy cavalry on the battlefield, his eyes full of envy.

This thing is a powerful weapon for charging into the enemy line. However, in order to make it, you need to spend money and have an extremely strong warhorse.

At present, there are only so many heavy cavalry in the entire Khitan.

I can’t envy you.

After thinking for a while, he sighed silently and said, "Sound the gong."

Li Zheng responded and personally arranged for the sounding of the gong. After a while, the sound of the gong was loud. After hearing the sound, both the Pinglu Army and the Jiangdong Army outside the city began to retreat in an orderly manner.

Retreating on the battlefield does not mean just turning around and running away. Instead, it is quite particular. Sometimes, if you want to retreat, you have to charge forward a round to gain some space for retreat.

The Pinglu Army was naturally well aware of all these and there was no need for Li Yun to teach them.

Soon, these Pinglu troops began to retreat in an orderly manner.

Meng Qing and others who were supporting the flanks also began to retreat little by little.

In the evening, everyone retreated back to Jizhou City and the city gates were closed.

Li Yun looked towards the Khitan tribe in the distance, his face calm and silent.

After a while, he took Li Zheng and Xiao Heng down the city wall to welcome the returning Pinglu Army and Meng Qing's troops.

Li Yun first looked at Meng Qing and gave him a questioning look. Meng Qing stepped forward and bowed his head and said, "Master, I am fine."

He paused and asked, "Sir, I have saved one or two hundred Han people on the battlefield. Among these people, dozens of them want to follow me to join the army. To avenge the Khitans..."

"What do you think, sir?"

Li Yun looked at him, then said softly: "It's okay to stay, but you have to ask clearly whether these people want to follow you or seek revenge on the Khitans. After all, we will only stay in the north for a few months and will return to Jiangnan in the second half of the year."

Meng Qing bowed his head deeply: "Yes, I will ask them in detail."

Li Yun looked at Xiao Heng and said, "If these people want to take revenge on the Khitans, please ask the Major General to take them in."

Xiao Heng was very surprised, then nodded slowly: "I obey your command."

As they were talking, Zhou Chang, the Major General of the Pinglu Army, was also helped into the city. Li Yun frowned and walked forward, looking him over and asked, "Is the Major General injured?"

Zhou Chang shook his head slightly: "I was hit by a Khitan warhorse, but it's not serious."

At this point, he looked up at Li Yun and sighed: "I originally wanted to go out and earn a reputation, but I didn't expect to be embarrassed."

There is no doubt that the Pinglu Army lost today's battle.

At least I suffered a loss.

The two sides fought for nearly two hours, and the Pinglu Army probably suffered more than a thousand casualties, or even more than a thousand.

The enemy suffered no more than six or seven hundred casualties.

"Winning or losing a war is not something that can be done overnight."

Li Yun patted Zhou Chang on the shoulder and said with a smile: "We still have a few months to deal with them."

Having said that, Li Yun looked up at the sky and spoke slowly.

"At this point, it's hard to say who will win or lose."

Xiao Heng, who was standing by, asked about the approximate casualties, then sighed and said, "Our Fanyang Army fought against the Khitans."

"It's about the same amount of damage."

Li Yun stood with his hands behind his back.

"Don't worry, there will always be a day when you will be rewarded."

(End of this chapter)