The Emperor ordered Zhao Tang

Chapter 203 Seesaw (Part )

White dew lies across the river, the water shines to the sky, and the moon lingers between the two planets.

The meat grinder comparable to the battles of Zhaojue Temple, Baixiang and Yishui is running at full capacity!
"Toot—" the charging horns tore through the noise, like a flash of lightning, passing by everyone's ears. The imperial guards Long Jiedu, Baozidu, Wansui Army, Uighurs, Tatars, and Turks seemed to be sitting on the electric chair, baring their teeth and making a clattering sound in their mouths, roaring hysterically, holding their horse spears flat in both hands, and rushing towards the trembling Bian army formation like iron floats.

"Shoot!" Li Renmei shouted in Turkic.

The royal guards picked up their horse bows and gathered a wave of locust rain. All the armies followed suit, and the overwhelming arrows streaked through the night sky, almost making the ground grow a patch of black hair. The distance was still far, and the horse bows had limited killing power, so they didn't hit anyone at all, and were just intimidating the enemy. The Bian army didn't move at all, but instead kept hitting Pengpai with their swords, pounding the ground with their spears, and shouting loudly.

About five hundred steps, Li Jun formed a huge cone formation, crushing over like a tidal wave.

"Draw your guns!" Li Duo gave the order, and the carefully selected burly and fat shieldmen immediately sat down on the spot, turned sideways, and planted their feet in a small pit not far behind them. They leaned back and supported the rectangular shield with their bodies, ready to meet the first wave of impact. Black rifles stretched out from their shoulders and between the gaps in the shields. Some were parallel to the ground, pointing straight ahead. Some were tilted at a certain angle, stabbing into the sky.

"Boom, boom, boom!" The drums of the Bian army sounded in a provocative manner. The killers' hearts beat faster, their hands, claws and calves trembled, their eyes became bloodshot and red, and they yelled "ho ho ho" three times before cursing.

The morale is commendable! Xie Yanzhang, who had moved to the hillside to wait for the battle, relaxed a little. As long as the infantry did not scatter, Li Jun would not be able to break through the formation after a few waves of attacks. Once the strength was insufficient, he would lead more than 20,000 cavalry to pour down and defeat the enemy by attacking the tired enemy with leisure.

The winning strategy is that simple.

It's a pity that we didn't have time to prepare wagons for the infantry. If we rely on the wagon camp to fight, it will be easier. In addition, there are no trenches... But don't expect too much. Li's cavalry is all over Hebei, and encounters in the wild are inevitable, and there will be no shortage of them. Can we prepare wagon camps and fortifications in advance every time? Tonight, we have infantry to cooperate, but we still expect that. In the future, will the cavalry fight alone behind enemy lines?
"Woo——" A golden sound rang out, interrupting Xie Yanzhang's thoughts.

what happened?

He looked over and saw that the Li army had actually stopped. Li Renmei, who was the closest to the central army, reined in his horse 100 to 200 steps away from the front of the infantry formation, while the Wansui Army, the Imperial Guards, and the Four Envoys stopped 300 steps away.

Xie Yanzhang frowned, wondering what the hell was going on. The infantrymen who were on high alert were also puzzled: I have taken off my pants, why are you suddenly stopping?
"Great Khan, I think the enemy's army is well-prepared. They are not easy to deal with. We cannot charge them head-on." Hu Suoyue turned to Li Renmei and said, "Why not harass and scare them from the outside first to consume their energy? The enemy are all wearing armor. How long can they stand? In less than half an hour, their backs will ache and their legs will go numb. Then we can select heavy cavalry with armor to trample them in front of us, and we will be sure to win."

Li Renmei remained silent. He squinted his eyes and observed for a while, then turned his horse to look for Zhao Fu, Nangong Daoyuan, Wu Xiong and others, and asked, "The bandits are strong, what can we do?"

There are different types of Hu people. Except for the Tanguts who were so poor that they had to care little about their lives, the civilized peoples such as the Uighurs, Khitans, and Tubo were actually quite smart. They acted with skill and method.

"What can we do? Just do it!" Wu Xiong glared at him and said with disgust: "Are you scared by a few thousand Bian bandits? If Zhu Wen led a hundred thousand tigers and wolves, wouldn't he be intimidated? I have 40,000 cavalrymen. As long as they take turns to attack, no matter how strong the Bian people are, they can't stop me."

Hu Suoyue calmly replied on behalf of Li Renmei: "The bandits are all wearing iron armor, holding spears and swords. Under the heavy load, they can't last long. We just need to pull them repeatedly to weaken their spirit, and our army will be invincible. With our large numbers, we can probably win by charging them. But there will be too many casualties in men and horses. In this battle, our army's strength is cavalry. Mounts don't matter, the court has no shortage of horses, but knights are valuable, not wheat seedlings that grow twice a year in the fields. If we can reduce the casualties, we will do our best."

"People will die in war." Hu Suoyue obviously couldn't convince Wu Xiong, and refuted: As long as we can defeat the enemy, it doesn't matter if a few more people die. The only thing a warrior should do in the army is to wait in line for death. Killing or being killed is fate. If you join the army, you must be prepared. Why join the army if you are afraid of death?"

Everyone was speechless and looked at the commander Zhao Fu.

"Brother Nangong?"

"Avoid their sharp edge and attack their weak spot, this is in line with the art of war." Nangong Daoyuan said softly. Chengde also had a large number of cavalry and had fought against Hedong many times. He had participated in the command and had enough experience.

"Okay." Zhao Fu nodded. Then, they talked and worked together, raising a huge cloud of dust, and adjusted their formation into an arc of semi-enclosed structure. Long Jie, Hu Jie, Bao Zi, Feng Yun and others, together with some Uighurs, a total of more than 10,000 melee "tanks" gathered in the center, and other miscellaneous cavalry were on both sides. Arranged in columns. In this way, they could randomly select a column or take turns from one side to another.

"I'll go first!" Wu Xiong was impatient and shouted, "I am not talented enough, please help the recruiting envoy to weigh the weight of the bandits!"

"In the first battle against the enemy, we must win but not lose. Please go ahead." Nangong Daoyuan bowed.

Damn it… Wu Xiong cursed inwardly, thinking that he had little chance of winning, looking down on others? Or bullying him because he had no one in the palace? Pah, a Hebei dog, inhuman. But he was angry, but he didn't dare to get angry. This guy's sister favored Yan, that was too smooth, just like Wei Zifu.

"Brother Nangong is in charge of the Fan Army Division. It is too early to risk your life now." Zhao Fu rejected him, glanced at the generals, and asked, "Who else?"

"Someone!" More than ten people, including Cui Jiahu, the general manager of the Han army, Sima Kanwu, the instructor of the foreign army, Lu Xu, the chief military officer of the foreign army, Murong Cong, the general of Longjie, Liu Xianyuan who had just returned to the army after mourning, Yelu Chongde, the general of Leopard, Xiao, Zhang Jide, Zhao En, etc., raised their hands almost at the same time.

Here, Li Renmei gave a wink, and Hu Suoyue, Li Renqi, Meng Mengzi and Duoli beside him immediately volunteered to fight.

"Zhao En, Wu Xiong, Lu Xu, Meng Mengzi." Zhao Fu started with his cousin Zhao En and selected four generals, then drew the imperial guards from Fengyundu, while Li Renmei allocated a thousand imperial guards to Meng Mengzi.

"In the first battle against the enemy, we must win but not lose. If we are taken advantage of by the enemy and our morale is crushed, you can lose your life to atone for your sin. Otherwise, you can go back to Tianshui and be an ordinary citizen." Zhao Fu waved at Zhao En.

Zhao En nodded, kicked his horse's belly and rushed out of the team. More than 2,000 cavalrymen followed in an arc, and under the leadership of four people, they swept towards the enemy formation. The army immediately beat drums to cheer.

Zhao En and his men moved very quickly, and they reached the distance of more than 300 steps in the blink of an eye. After entering the 100-step position, the archers and crossbowmen in the enemy formation aimed at the target and threw three rounds of powerful arrows. At this distance, the lethality was sufficient, and the dense crowd made many people fall into the trap as soon as they met. The Bian army lost no time in bursting out laughter, trying to provoke them and let the Li army break through the hedgehog formation they had set up.

Fengyundu and Hu Bing also fought back.

They did not continue to charge, but wandered horizontally at a distance of about 100 steps, facing each other and turning back alternately to maintain the trend of movement, while drawing bows to find the hands and feet exposed at the front of the Bian army for "precision shooting". Due to the upper limit of the power of the horse bow, the return speed was faster than that of the Bian army, but the damage was limited. For this reason, some skilled and courageous knights rode their horses to within 50 steps, shot an arrow and came back. This time the power was greater. Even though the front row of the Bian army stood behind Pengpai and everyone was protected by iron armor, they still fell down in a large number, some were shot in the face, and some rolled over with their hands covering the back of their feet. Few people died, and most of them were injured to varying degrees.

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!" The two sides fired at each other, the sound of breaking through the air continued. They also cursed at each other, trying to make the other side lose their minds and come up to fight. Don't laugh, this is how war works, sometimes it works. How did Deng Jiyun get captured by the Shatuo people? It was because Li Cunxiao's words "fat guy" broke his defense.

"Henan country dog! You can pull two stone bows, but you can't read a single word, hahahaha!"

"Rebel! Why don't you kneel down when you see Ye Ye!"

"You're hiding in your shell and playing dead. That's it?"

"Chen Lingxun, your mother is dead! Go back quickly to mourn for her and kneel down in the mourning hall and cry."

"Fuck your sister, lelelelele...hahahahaha."

"..."

The Bian army greeted Li Ni's family with spit flying, but many of them were really angry. These words of not knowing a single word hurt the self-esteem of many people. This is not an era where warriors are proud of being uneducated. On the contrary, if they are called ignorant, the lightest punishment is to drive out the general, and the worst is to kill the whole family.

"Fuck you, let's do it! Brothers, charge!" Someone stamped his feet and raised his arms to shout. It's easy to control emotions, but how many people can remain indifferent when someone points at their noses and yells "Your mother is dead! Your wife is very smooth"? There are not many in later generations, let alone those who are "arrogant" at this time. Sure enough, everyone clamored and was eager to try. However, it can be seen that there are cowards and wise men among these Bian thieves. Some pretended not to hear, and some pulled their comrades to persuade them. Chen Lingxun, Shao Ru and other generals also gave loud speeches, which is more valuable, life or face? The commotion was barely suppressed.

"Da da da..." At this time, Li's army began to approach in an orderly manner and in batches, passing in front of the Bian army. They stabbed the shieldmen with their horse lances, but missed, made false moves, shouted loudly, and pretended to charge.

"Shoot!" The archer fired back again and drove it away.

"Kill!" The Bian army's front line overreacted, some holding their long spears vertically, or stabbing diagonally and forward at the passing Li army's spears.

The swordsman also came out from the shieldman's side, half of his body hidden in the thick shield, and swung his sword with his right hand to chop the horse's legs.

But Li's army kept a very careful distance, always keeping it within reach, but missing when you actually tried to stab or chop, making the Bian army curse and get a little tired. At the same time, the advantage of the horse lance was revealed. At this "raiding" distance, the Bian army's infantry lances could not stab them, but Li's horse lances could reach the first row of the Bian army.

"Bang!" A knight turned his horse sharply, grabbed the reins with one hand and pulled them hard to the upper right. The horse felt the pain and was unable to react. Its body tilted 45 degrees and kicked the Pengpai next to it with its left hoof. Then the Bian army left a mark on the ground. The horse gritted its teeth and kicked its feet into the pit before it stopped.

Seeing that the horse was about to fall, several long spears were stabbed out wildly, but the knight pushed the horse spear against the ground in the opposite direction, loosened his foot from the right stirrup, and pulled the reins with his left hand. The struggling horse's hooves adjusted the balance twice and stood firm. He shook his head and his mane. The knight put away the horse spear and swept it horizontally towards the stabbing infantry spear. He twisted the rope and the horse saw the direction. The man and the horse ran back happily under the moonlight as bright as day.

"Hahahaha!" The knight turned around, tossed his hair, pointed his lance provocatively, and laughed heartily: "I've always heard that the Bian army is brave and sharp, but it's just this good."

"Hahaha!" Li Jun, who saw this scene, cheered enthusiastically.

The Bian army was like eating a dead rat, gritting their teeth, forehead veins bulging, collectively red and warm, comforting each other with words like "Infantry cannot fight cavalry", "Get off your horse and fight with me, kill these people indiscriminately", "It's unfair", "You're still fighting, you'll stab them wrongly!", "It's better to go back to the city and sleep than to be humiliated by racing horses with others in the middle of the night!" On the pond, Xie Yanzhang's heart sank.

His riding skills are really good. When he arrived in Daliang, he must be a cavalry general... If a soldier in Li's army has such a level, how can we fight this battle? It's better to go back to the city and sleep...

But if we really withdraw our troops at this time, it would be a big embarrassment. It would be embarrassment, but the key is that it would hurt morale.

Seeing that Xie Yanzhang, the "first cavalry general of Daliang", was afraid to go forward, the Tabaizhudu would only feel inferior, and planted a fear of Li Ze's cavalry in their hearts, and there would be no cavalry battles in the future. The infantry "worked overtime" in the middle of the night to cooperate, but ended up being very angry. The cavalry still didn't dare to go forward. Would these assholes cooperate with the cavalry units in the future? Xie Yanzhang thought about it seriously, looked at the Fengyundu and Uighurs who were showing off their strength, and listened to the uncontrollable anger and clamor of Li Duo, Shi Yanhong and other troops, and decided to fight.

Xie Yanzhang selected three thousand cavalrymen and went into battle.

Seeing that the enemy's flags were like clouds, Zhao En defeated the Rhino Cavalry and led his troops to retreat a hundred steps away. He stopped harassing the Bian army and instead organized his troops to engage in battle.

"Boom, boom, boom!" Both armies beat drums at the same time. The soldiers were all excited and cheering, like a fan club, cheering for their own side.

Soon, Xie Yanzhang rolled in with dust and sand.

The Bian army focused their attention on Xie Yanzhang and his party, hoping that they could defeat Li's army. The officers had wooden expressions and did not hold out any hope. The gap was so big, so what! Just fight two games and be worthy of Zhu Sheng's reward. It's important to go back to the city and sleep.

"Whoa!" Xie Yanzhang didn't rush forward.

He still had some sense and knew that his 3,000 cavalry would have a hard time fighting the enemy's cavalry. In order to boost morale, he slowed down from a distance and ordered his men to wait on the spot. He rode alone to the front of Li Jun and shouted, "How dare you compare yourself to Li Guangbi in fighting Siming and challenge me head-on!"

"I'll shoot him to death!" Wu Xiong drew his bow and put an arrow on it.

"Wu Erlang!" Zhao En waved his hand to stop him, and told his men to get ready. He then clamped his legs under the horse's belly, stepped forward and pointed at his spear and cursed: "The people of the Central Plains, the Chao thieves, are slaughtering them like pigs and dogs. The soldiers of Bian Song have suppressed rebellion for a hundred years, and they are a loyal and good army. You don't think about the revenge of Chao and Cai, kill the rebels, and repay the country. You dare to rebel against Tiangang, let benevolence and righteousness prevail, lead beasts to eat people, and help Wen usurp the throne. Such evil creatures, I am here to punish you! How dare you, a dog, to say that you are a match? This king's teacher, don't harm me secretly, quickly get back, lead the army and fight me to the death!"

Xie Yanzhang immediately replied, "How ridiculous! A dictator's lackey can actually say such high-sounding words! As an important minister of the previous emperor and a pillar of the country, the sage is mean and unkind, and he is suspicious of him. He even thought that the loyal minister of Bian Shuai could be bullied, and killed more than 300 people including Wei Zhen, the official who submitted the memorial, and repeatedly forced him! Killing noble scholars to destroy the holy way, and bringing in the barbarians to kill heretics. If Jie and Zhou were resurrected, how could they be the rulers of the Chinese and barbarians? All heroes in the world can kill them! You are supporting the devil to abuse us and resist our revolutionary army in Guandong. I think you are the shameless bastard dog slave! If you don't dare to challenge me, I will do it myself. You said these things, which made me laugh and cry!"

Zhao En was furious, but before he could say anything, he heard a loud shout from behind him, and a horseman came flying out. The man on the horse was none other than his cousin Zhao Hui, the deputy instructor of the Fan Army. When they passed by each other, Zhao Hui, who was in high spirits, looked straight ahead and said, "I'll kill him!"

Zhao En immediately turned his horse back to the battle formation and ordered his men: "Give him support!"

"Let's see what this guy is capable of!" Xie Yanzhang faced the enemy head-on and stabbed with his spear.

"Roar, roar, roar! Long live!" The main force of Li Jun's brigade hundreds of steps away burst into thunderous and aggressive roars, and the rain-like sound of drums shook the wilderness.

"Kill, kill, kill!" The Bian army also forced themselves to fight back.

Ding ding ding, sparks flying.

Generals Zhao Hui and Xie Yanzhang fought desperately in full view of everyone.

Xie Yanzhang is Ge Congzhou's adopted son. He was taught by Ge Congzhou since he was a child. He is good at both civil and military affairs, and is gifted in horseback riding. As soon as he was crowned, he was recruited by Zhu Wen as a cavalry general. Zhu Wen once publicly praised him in the Cavalry Division: "Gui Ba, Shen Cheng, Huo Cun, Hou Wenyu, etc., cannot lead more than 3,000 cavalry. If they do, they will surely be defeated. But this boy, the more cavalry he has, the better. Given time, he should be the commander of Huaiyin."

So he fought with Zhao Hui for dozens of rounds, and seemed to be very good at it. But after a while, his disadvantages of not being as strong as Zhao Hui and not having as much endurance as Zhao Hui were exposed. After nearly fifty rounds, he gradually began to lose his strength, his breathing became heavy and rapid, and beads of sweat rolled down his face, as if he had just run ten miles. Every time the spear tip collided, the force transmitted from the pole made Xie Yanzhang's palm numb.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" Zhao Hui was as fierce as a mad tiger. He played the four or five meter long lance in his hand like a toy, and stabbed Xie Yanzhang's forehead, chest, and the side of his mount with five lightning strikes.

"Swish!" Xie Yanzhang drew his sword and slashed at Zhao Hui's head.

Zhao Hui dodged, and his bun was knocked off during the fight, so his long black hair was completely spread out.

Xie Yanzhang was unable to succeed, and seeing Zhao Hui's calm expression and steady breathing, he immediately lost his mind. Zhao Hui seized this moment of distraction and passed by, grabbing the horse spear with his left hand. As the horse turned, the dagger in his right hand stabbed Xie Yanzhang's calf. He immediately heard Xie Yanzhang's suppressed pain and swung his sword to cut. Zhao Hui reversed and fiercely swung his sword, and amid Xie Yanzhang's uncontrollable screams, he let go of his hand, dodged the sword, passed by Xie Yanzhang, and let his mount carry him away.

Zhao En and others saw this and exclaimed that it was awe-inspiring.

The Bian army felt like they had lost their parents.

Seeing that the cavalry had not sent anyone to help, Chen Lingxun did not want Xie Yanzhang to be beheaded, so he jumped on his horse and rushed out with another town general, Li Duo, to surround and kill Zhao Hui. Wu Xiong shouted, "How dare you, Bian dog!" He shot out the arrows that had been held back for a long time, and shot down Xie Yanzhang's horse with one arrow. Zhao En, Meng Mengzi, and Lu Xu saw that Zhao Hui was surrounded and the Bian bandits broke the rules, and shouted "Good shooting!" and all their men joined the battle. When Xie Yanzhang's men saw this, they also launched their iron hooves and swept over. The two cavalry forces, more than 5,000 cavalrymen, collided like meteors, with a loud bang.

"Crack!" A white knight was running, but his head disappeared, and his mount rushed out of the chaos naked.

"Ah!" Another Guangsheng knight was knocked off his horse by the spear tip, and was trampled into a pile of pink minced meat by pairs of iron hooves coming towards him amidst the dancing and screaming.

"Puff puff..." In every round of confrontation, the Bian army was defeated on a large scale.

"Kill!" Another wave of black guns attacked in a cone shape, and more than half of the Bian army was killed or wounded, and they fled back to the mountain with screams. The infantry formation who were watching the battle from a close distance witnessed this bloodbath, and immediately there was a commotion everywhere, and the officers and officers could not stop shouting, as if their morale was hurt. The generals had no confidence, and the soldiers had no fighting spirit. The signs of a great defeat were revealed without a doubt.

On Zhao Fu's side, he could see the magnificent light illuminating the entire plain of the Ji River, and he could also see the galloping and roaring of more than 5,000 cavalrymen and the broken limbs and broken horses rolling and crying on the ground. The sound of killing shook the sky, and the rumbling of iron hooves made people's blood boil. The soldiers almost thought that they would be defeated in a snap, and they patted their horses' backs excitedly, complaining that Zhao Fu and Li Renmei were too cautious and did not give orders: "I will be sent down, and I must capture Xie Yanzhang alive!"

When the Bian army's formation was visibly shaken, Zhao Fu clapped his hands, and countless tung oil torches gradually lit up in front, behind, left and right. Dozens of piles of gunpowder and firewood were ignited, and the huge flames illuminated the surroundings more clearly. Then Zhao Fu ordered: "From left to right, every two rows form a column, and take turns to harass the enemy's formation. Each column will be given one incense stick, and they will return when the bell rings."

"Kill the bandits!" Instantly the shouting filled the mountains and fields, and Li's army rushed towards the Bian army like rolling stones.

The depressed people of Bianzhou either forcibly prepared for battle. Some shrugged their shoulders, muttering "It's over, it's over", ready to fish, or gathered in groups of three or five with their officers, clamoring to return to the city. With the look of our own cavalry, what does it matter if we stop the thief Li? Can Xie Yanzhang and his men reap the harvest? Don't do meaningless things. Wait until General Pang's main force goes north, and then settle accounts with the thief Li.

The officers thought so and agreed.

"Come on, follow me to tie up Generals Li Duo, Shi Yanhong, Chen Lingxun, and Shao Ru." A lieutenant colonel said lazily.

"I'm here too!!" It was like a hundred responses in response.

Li Duo and his ilk were still thinking about how to defeat the enemy, but they were pulled off their horses by the soldiers. A dense crowd of warriors surrounded them, holding their hands high up, and shouted in unison: "The commander has ordered, sound the horn to withdraw the troops!"

The messengers looked at Li Duo and the others and stood there.

A group of soldiers came up, grabbed her by the hair and started beating her, cursing, "The commander has spoken, but you didn't obey. Do you have any ulterior motives? Do you have any rebellious intentions? We will beat you on behalf of Zhu Sheng."

"Did you hear that?" A sergeant tapped Shi Yanhong's helmet with his two knuckles.

Looking at those pairs of eyes that were filled with expectation, approval, joy, and resentment, Shi Yanhong sighed, stamped his feet, and gritted his teeth: "Fight and retreat, withdraw the troops!"

"Withdraw the troops..." Li Duo, Chen Lingxun and Shao Ru said in a low voice helplessly.

"This is an order from the town commanders. I didn't force it. If you complain to Zhu Sheng later, I won't be able to get away with it, but the town commanders...haha, I won't say any more, I won't say any more."

Li Duo looked up to the sky and sighed: "I know the rules."

The soldiers turned their anger into joy and helped them onto their horses. After the commander had assigned who would be the rear guard and who would provide cover and given the orders, they supported each of them and hurriedly retreated to the military city behind.

However, your "retreat" is convenient and quick, but what about the more than 20,000 cavalrymen of Xie Yanzhang on the pond? Li's army has launched an attack. If you run away, won't Xie Yanzhang be fighting alone? Well, Ge Congzhou's beloved son is in danger!
　The Bian army sold out their teammates. Many readers will filter the soldiers of the late Tang Dynasty: professional soldiers, so they follow orders and know the limits. As the best among them, the Bian army is an iron-blooded army. It's stereotyped. Zhu Wen's group is very large, with all kinds of cattle and horses. There are also many bad habits. There are only differences in severity, not as abstract as the abstract school of the Youzhou army.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)