Prosperous Tang Dynasty

Chapter 397
In just a few days, Li Fei swept across most of Hebei. Not only was Shi Siming almost fell off his horse in shock, but the rebels in the remaining prefectures and counties in Hebei that had not yet been captured by Li Fei heard, He was equally terrified and panicked.

If Shi Siming hadn't led 35 rebels across the Yellow River, they might have surrendered to Li Fei without Li Fei's troops approaching the city.

There is no doubt that Li Fei and Shi Siming must be a decisive battle.The remaining rebels in these counties are waiting and watching. Once Shi Siming is defeated, they will immediately betray Shi Siming and surrender to Li Fei.

It can be said that if Li Fei wins Shi Siming in one battle, he will immediately be able to set the entire north of the Yellow River.

Shi Siming rushed to Xiangzhou non-stop with 35 rebels.

In Handan, which is about 17 miles away from Xiangzhou City, Li Fei also regrouped various armies. Except for some defenders left in the captured city, [-] Anton Army soldiers regrouped together.

Besides Lu Xin, Luo Ying, Zhang Shuo, Yuan Kui and other generals, Li Guangbi also led an army and became the chief general along the way.

To say that he led the Anton army to fight, Li Guangbi felt too relaxed.

Anton's army was well equipped, with explosives and even cannons, the city walls were no hindrance at all, and they could easily enter the city.

After entering the city, the soldiers of the anti-army defenders often collapsed, and the army easily occupied the city.

Li Guangbi estimated that the Anton Army's ten-route army captured so many cities, and their own casualties were less than [-], which was very small.

Only when he was preparing for a decisive battle with Shi Siming's main force in Xiangzhou, Li Guangbi could arouse some enthusiasm.

"That guy Guo Ziyi has a bad temper. It's a big loss for him not to join the war!" Li Guangbi shook his head and sighed thinking of his 'old comrade-in-arms' Guo Ziyi.

Originally, Li Fei invited Guo Ziyi, hoping that Guo Ziyi would lead an army to participate in this war, but Guo Ziyi thought that if he did that, it would be tantamount to serving Li Fei and completely betraying Datang. refused.

Li Fei does not force Guo Ziyi, in fact, Guo Ziyi already has two sons who follow Li Fei and become two generals beside Li Fei. Regarding his son's relationship, he has already been marked by Li Fei, but his thoughts in certain directions are too stubborn, and his temper is very bad. It may take a while to realize the reality, and Li Fei is not in a hurry.

"Let's go, Dingding Hebei will fight here!" Li Fei led his army from Handan and pointed directly at Xiangzhou.

Originally, with the speed of Anton's iron cavalry, Li Fei could completely occupy Xiangzhou before Shi Siming, but Li Fei didn't do that. Anyway, defeating Shi Siming's 35 "rabble" is not difficult in his eyes.

As Li Fei led the army closer to Xiangzhou, Shi Siming felt more and more stressed.

When Shi Siming had just led his army north across the Yellow River, Shi Siming was still full of pride, confident that with his 35 troops, he could keep Li Fei in the area of ​​Youzhou City, even defeat Li Fei and take advantage of the situation to enter Anton.

But as Li Fei broke through Youzhou City in an instant, and the autumn wind swept across half of Hebei in less than ten days, the pride in Shi Siming's heart disappeared, replaced by nervousness and fear, and he did not have much to defeat Li Fei. Fly with confidence.

Li Fei's performance was too shocking. It was like a stormy sea. Before the confrontation, Shi Siming was terrified by the momentum of sweeping half of Hebei.

Fortunately, there are more than 38 rebels around Shi Siming, which is twice that of Li Fei's Anton army. Shi Siming still has some confidence.

Shi Siming crossed the Yellow River north with 35 rebels, but after crossing the Yellow River, Shi Siming mobilized all the defenders from some counties along the way, and there were more than 1 defenders in Xiangzhou City, so now there are more than 38 soldiers around Shi Siming. Thousands of rebels.

The distance of sixty miles is not far, and at Sishi, an Anton iron cavalry had already arrived in Xiangzhou as a forward.

In the near future, Li Fei arrived one after another with the rest of Anton's army.

The 17 Anton Army confronted Shi Siming's more than 38 rebels.

On the surface, Shi Siming's anti-army is densely packed and endless, and the number is more than twice that of Li Fei's Anton army.But in fact, Shi Siming's anti-army was uneven. A large number of soldiers were forced to recruit young and strong mobs, without much training, lack of armor, and scattered formations.On the other hand, Li Fei's 17 Andong Army, with shining armor, neat and rigorous formation, and vigorous soldiers, showed an elite performance, crushing Shi Siming's rebel army with more than twice the number in terms of momentum.

Shi Siming's face was sullen, his brows were wrinkled, and his psychological pressure was even greater.Although he is sometimes arrogant, but he is a hero after all, he still has a certain vision, he can see the superficial comparison.

After reaching the confrontation distance, the soldiers of the Anton Army Artillery Battalion immediately began to build artillery positions.

This time Li Fei carried a total of six artillery battalions with 210 cannons.

This decisive battle is the first battle that will really show its power since the birth of the cannon. The previous attack on Youzhou City was just a few cannonballs for the situation, and the real power of the cannon was not shown at all.

And because Youzhou City fell too quickly, most of Hebei was also swept by Li Fei's autumn wind like falling leaves, so Shi Siming didn't know that Li Fei still had such terrible things as cannons.

Li Fei wanted to wait for the cannon to be in place, and was not in a hurry to launch an attack.

On the other side, Shi Siming was unwilling to wait any longer. Li Fei's Anton army's strict military formation and gleaming armor revealed bursts of oppressive momentum. It's not good, so Shi Siming first ordered his rebels to attack.

"Kill!" Shi Siming held a big knife in his hand, with the blade pointing forward, with 20 of the most elite soldiers in the front, followed by [-] other rebels, and Shi Siming, who had more than [-] rebels as a reserve army, They didn't go out all at once.

At the beginning, there were 12 elite soldiers under Shi Siming's command, who swept Hebei, captured Luoyang, and attacked Tongguan and Jianghuai. [-] were in Luoyang, and [-] were taken north to cross the Yellow River.

Of course, Shi Siming's so-called "elite" is relative to the current Tang Dynasty court. In fact, since the war has been fought, the Tang Dynasty court's arsenal has long been used up. , Not only the anti-army can't afford it, the army of the Tang Dynasty can't afford it, even a large number of Tang army soldiers, the anti-army soldiers can't even afford armor, and those who can use armor are considered "elite".

However, Li Fei's Anton Army is armed to the teeth, well-trained, and has battlefield experience. Among them, [-] are the elites of hundreds of battles before the large-scale expansion of the army. Here, there are still mobs.
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(End of this chapter)