Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 223 Success or failure is yet to be determined

Facing the spearmen who were marching in formation, Wen Dunhunyu did not try to flank him, nor did he charge at the big flag of the blue ox and white horse. Instead, he stood there, his face turning pale for a moment before he gritted his teeth and made up his mind.

"Hui Lancheng! You lead the team and tie up these bandits for me." Wen Dunhunyu ordered loudly: "All the armored cavalry, follow me!"

As he spoke, Wendun Hunyu led three relatively neat armored cavalrymen and moved westward, galloping in front of the formation to intimidate and gather the troops.

After gathering the infantry of the Seventh Meng'an, he protected them as they mounted their horses and retreated. Then Wendun Hunyu led the armored cavalry to rush towards the green rhinoceros flag.

After nearly an hour of fighting, both sides were exhausted. After Wen Dunhunyu arrived with reinforcements, Xin Qiji led the cavalry to give up the fight and retreat.

Pushandong was equally exhausted. Following Wendunhunyu's signal, he also stopped and retreated.

Geng Xing and Yelu Xingge on the two wings were busy gathering their own cavalry and were unable to pursue. Only Xin Wenyuan led hundreds of infantrymen to advance, but was attacked by Wendun Hunyu in a surprise attack. After suffering dozens of casualties, they had to stop.

Both sides gathered their troops and retreated.

The first battle between the Tianping Army and the Wuxing Army ended in such a whimper.

This is also the norm in wars these days, fighting and stopping, gathering troops back to camp to rest, and then fighting again, until one side's morale is completely worn out.

Although common, there is no doubt that this is an outcome that satisfies no one.

For the Tianping Army, gathering the elite troops from various units and painstakingly organizing them, only to be defeated by 3,000 against 2,000 was simply unbelievable. Especially after counting the casualties, it was found that over 300 people were killed or wounded, equivalent to more than one-tenth of the total number of troops. This was not only frustrating, but also terrifying.

For the Wuxing Army, the situation was even more outrageous. As the Jin Empire's main army, with two fully staffed divisions of a thousand men, they faced a 3,000-man peasant uprising force head-on. Not only were they unable to defeat them in a single blow, they also suffered over 200 casualties. This was especially true on the left wing. If it weren't for Wen Dunhunyu's timely support, Pushandong might have been killed on the spot by the fierce generals under the Green Rhino banner.

As for Kai Zhao, although he was completely powerless and could only sit on the city wall and watch the outcome, he still had some hope that the Tianping Army could defeat the Jin Army in one fell swoop and rescue Ju County.

Seeing that the Tianping army fought hard but failed to defeat the enemy, they were immediately disappointed and at a loss.

In Kai Zhao's opinion, both the Tianping Army and the Wuxing Army were too powerful. The two sides fought back and forth for hundreds of rounds and were still able to maintain their formations and keep an offensive posture, which was something Kai Zhao's troops could not match.

Therefore, when Kai Zhao sent a messenger to welcome the Tianping Army into the city, Xin Qiji personally came to the city to respond and rejected Kai Zhao's proposal. Kai Zhao's disappointment turned into panic.

Xin Qiji had sufficient reasons, because the mission of the Tianping Army was to prevent the Wuxing Army's detachment from moving south along the Shu River. If they all retreated into the city, what would happen if the Jin Army simply ignored Ju County and moved south?
Therefore, the Tianping Army had to set up camp with their backs to the Xianggong River pontoon bridge to block the enemy.

At the same time, Xin Qiji asked Zhao to relax and not worry about the Jin thieves attacking the city. The Tianping Army would rest for one night today and fight the Jin thieves tomorrow to decide the outcome. They must drive all the Jin thieves into the Shuhe River!
Kai Zhao was on the city wall, feeling both amused and helpless.

I'm not worried about the Jin army attacking the city, I'm worried that your Tianping army will escape at night!

But Xin Qiji was full of thoughts and didn't care what Kai Zhao was thinking. After comforting him loudly for a few words, he led his personal guards back to the bridgehead to set up camp.

Just as the Tianping Army and the Wuxing Army had ceased fighting and returned to their camps to lick their wounds, the battle was in full swing at the front camp of the Zhongyi Army on the banks of the Yishui River, sixty miles to the west.

The Jin army still led the attack on the camp of the Loyal Army with the Qian army. After suffering heavy casualties, they finally opened up several passages on the triple trenches.

The Jin army immediately launched a fierce attack on the loyal army.

The lives of the soldiers were spared at this moment. Meng Tian, the guardian of the country, issued a death order: no soldiers would be served dinner tonight. They didn't need to return. Didn't the loyal army have deep trenches and high fortifications? Use the corpses of the soldiers to fill the loyal army's trenches, and use the corpses of the soldiers to build a gentle slope in front of the loyal army's wooden fences for attack!
During the attack of the Qian army, the regular army hid among the Qian army in teams of ten, approached under the wooden fence, drew their bows and shot arrows, killing the loyal army soldiers behind the earthen hills and wooden fences.

The Loyal Army refused to give in. Relying on a small stronghold in the mountains, they continuously organized troops from the right wing to fight back. The newly formed troops took turns to fight, relying on the support of bows and arrows from the camp behind them to clear out the Jin army that had rushed to the camp.

The marching Meng'an who were in charge of the battle were not useless either. Seeing that the gate of the Loyal Army's camp was wide open, they wanted to push the Qian army into the camp. However, just as they let three Mouke's regular troops enter the battlefield, the Loyal Army's armored cavalry came out one after another under the leadership of the Flying Tiger flag. With the cooperation of the infantry, they trampled on the 300 Jin soldiers who had rushed into the camp.

Hui Te Mile, who was in charge of the attack, was extremely shocked and angry, but after what happened yesterday, he did not dare to send his entire army forward. He just continued to fill in the gaps with the recruited soldiers and at the same time recruited archers for long-range support.

Today's frontal offensive by the Jin army is only a tentative attack, and the main attack direction is in the hills on the east side.

Zhang Jueming, the fourth general of the Wuxing Army, led his Haner Meng'an into the mountainous area. He did not march quickly at first, but instead took a steady approach, placing beacons and flags at key points on the mountaintops and sending scouts along the mountain roads to investigate the enemy's situation.

This is naturally a safe method, but its only drawback is that it progresses too slowly.

This is also something that Meng Tian, the guardian of the country, cannot tolerate.

After half a day of steady progress, the military envoys urged them to fight more and more urgently. In the end, Meng Tian's personal guard, Ba'atur, came in person with the general's sword to urge them to fight.

Zhang Jueming had no choice but to bite the bullet and lead his Han army forward along the rugged mountain road.

Based on the vague direction provided by the scouts, Zhang Jueming actually reached the outskirts of the Loyal Army's stronghold despite the harassment of cold arrows and the surprise attacks of small troops.

Before he had time to be happy, Zhang Jueming's heart sank when he took a closer look at the terrain.

The reason is simple: this cottage looks disgusting.

The earthen hill was not too high, only about four zhang, but it covered a vast area, several hundred steps long and wide.

If that were the case, it would be fine. The larger the area, the flatter the slope, which would be more conducive to the Wuxing Army's attack.

But this earthen hill is just like the plateau in the northwest, with neat drops of more than ten feet on all four sides.

Just based on this, it can be said that the commander of this mountain stronghold is a waste like Ma Su, but there are several passages around, enough for the army to move up and down. At the foot of the mountain, there are wooden fences, trenches and deer horns connecting to the main stronghold of the Loyal Army.

It is impossible for the Fourth Meng'an's thousand men to block the roads up and down.

Moreover, this is a mountainous area. If the Loyal Army had any tricks up their sleeves, they would not have been able to force the Wuxing Army to simply besiege the camp.

Maybe the enemy troops are already coming along the ravine.

Zhang Jueming stood on a high ground, looking around. "Send a message to Gu Dashou, have him take two Moukes and go around from the west to see if there's another way through this dirt hill. Send a message to Wang Ermazi, have him take two Moukes and occupy the intersection on the east side. Don't move. Send..."

Before the voice fell and the military envoy set off, Zhang Jueming suddenly saw from the corner of his eye that a thick smoke was rising from a hilltop hidden by trees on the right.

Before he could figure out whether it was the scouts he had arranged or the forest fire, the sound of war drums mixed with the sound of horns rumbled up.

"kill!"

"Kill the gold thief!"

From a distance, I saw a mountain path covered with thorns and bushes, but now I could hear loud shouts and screams, and for a moment I didn't know how many soldiers were about to charge out.

The Fourth Meng'an army was in great chaos and wanted to retreat immediately, but the marching Mouke and Puliyan did not see Zhang Jueming's order and did not dare to retreat. However, in such a complex terrain, it was impossible to deploy the usual formations and they could only form a formation in clusters to protect themselves.

Fortunately, Zhang Jueming also knew the capabilities of his soldiers and did not dare to fight a decisive battle with the Loyal Army in such a place, so he immediately issued an order.

"The rear team becomes the front team, retreat!" Zhang Jueming pointed at someone and said, "Liang Yuaner, you lead our troops to cover the rear!"

Liang Yuaner had just bowed in agreement when the camp gate of the mountain stronghold opened wide, and hundreds of light soldiers with swords and shields rushed out, led by a man holding a large flag with stone characters on it.

These sword and shield soldiers, wearing only iron crotch guards, moved quickly through the mountains and soon engaged in battle with the Jin army.

Zhang Jueming looked at Liang Yuaner deeply, then left quickly with his personal soldiers.

(End of this chapter)