"How could it be? General Lu was too worried?" Huan Yi shook his head and smiled.
As a capable staff member under Ding Shao, Huan Yi personally participated in the formulation of a plan against the Shile bandits, and knew very well how high the Jizhou shogunate had placed on this battle. Therefore, he vaguely felt offended by Lu Yao's sudden assertion. Although he kept a polite smile, his words were clearly refuting: "The Hebei thieves originated from the head of the general Gongshifu of King Sima Ying, the general of King Sima Ying of Chengdu. The intention of the initial uprising was to expel the power of the King of Donghai and recover Jizhou for the King of Chengdu.
After the death of the Gongshi, the thieves fought and fought, and they always circulated in various prefectures and counties in Hebei. After Jisang was the leader of the thieves in Hebei, many thieves were in the mountains, lakes and swamps of the counties and counties, and they were able to compete with the Jizhou army until now. If he went to the Central Plains, it would be a move to abandon his foundation. What's more, this time, Governor Ding pretended to be seriously ill, which led to the thieves' army braved the storm and storm and rushed straight to Guangzong, approaching our army's camp and set foot in the camp. Didn't this see General Lu with his own eyes?"
Huan Yi paused, feeling that his tone was rude, so he nodded to Lu Yao and said, "The bandits competed with our army for several months and were exhausted. The only opponent they could count on was our army that was equally tired. In fact, if they took the initiative to attack the Yanzhou army, it would be something we could not ask for. The Yanzhou army sat down for a long time and should fight for a while..."
Lu Yao did not listen carefully to some of Huan Yi's nagging words. Perhaps his judgment was as flawed as Huan Yi said, but as a general who actually commanded the army and fought, sometimes he only relied on instinctive premonitions. Just like now, Lu Yao had a strong sense that Shi Le would never fall into the trap so easily, and he would inevitably launch measures that surprised everyone.
Lu Yao gave a few simple instructions, and the entourage knights led by Ma Rui began to prepare their armor and weapons. The soldiers looked a little solemn. None of these almost illiterate soldiers could do the same words as Huan Yi, but the vigilance brought by countless births and deaths made them seem to smell some dangerous breath from the air.
Gou Chun said that he defeated the Shile bandits in Liaocheng, but the story was not complete. The major military operation involving tens of thousands of people was not that simple.
The Yanzhou army stationed in Chiping had been watching the battle situation in Jizhou for nearly two months. Ten days ago, they received news that Ding Shao was seriously ill and immediately reported it to Linqiu, the Yanzhou capital. After Gou Xi received the report, he thought it was a rare opportunity, so he urgently mobilized boats and shipped the army to cross the river. Five days ago, the Yanzhou army went north all over, mobilizing a total of 22,000 troops, claiming to be 100,000.
These 22,000 people were all elite troops who fought against the Central Plains under Gou Xi, and were the basic force that the King of Donghai relied on to control the court. The monster thieves Liu Bogen, Feibao Wang Mi, Liu Ling and other powerful thieves gathered tens of thousands of people at their peak, and their reputation was not under Ji Sang Shile, but they were all defeated by the Yanzhou army one by one, which shows that the soldiers of Yanzhou have rich combat experience and good training.
The Yanzhou army was commanded by the fierce general Gou Chun. After crossing the river, the bandits quickly launched an unprecedented fierce attack on the Hebei bandits. The leader of the bandits responsible for defending this direction was Zhi Xiong. He was an old qualification among the "Eighteen Cavalry" of Shi Le's subordinates. He has always used steady troops and is quite famous. But after all, the power of the two sides is too far apart. Although he tried his best to block the pace of the Yanzhou army, he was no match for Gou Chun at all. In just three days, the cities in the southwest of the Plain Kingdom that the bandits seized successively, such as Gaotang, Boping, Linxian, etc., were lost again. Zhi Xiong threw away his armor and escaped from Gaotang County in a panic, gathered his defeated soldiers along the way and defeated the west.
The soldiers of Yanzhou are worthy of being powerful soldiers who are shaking the Central Plains. They slaughtered like wolves and tigers, and did not leave prisoners wherever they passed. More than a thousand bandits were awarded heads on several battlefields. Ten times more people were also cut off their heads to seek merit and rewards.
Yanzhou Governor Gou Xi had already instructed the army to control the counties and states in southern Jizhou before the King of Donghai appointed him as the next governor of Jizhou, and form substantial occupation. Gou Chun followed his brother's intentions and did not delay at the local level, urging the Yanzhou army to cover up and kill him. Yesterday, the elite front-line army led by Gou Chun himself caught up with Zhixiong's troops in Liaocheng.
It's ridiculous to say that the hero faced several times the official army and still left the city to challenge without knowing how to fight. As a result, as soon as the two armies came into contact, the bandits were defeated again. The Yanzhou army continued to pursue and defeated nine camps in succession on the south bank of the Qinghe River, achieving another great victory. At this point, the majority of the Pingyuan Kingdom fell into control of the Yanzhou army, but Gou Chun was not satisfied with this. In his plan, he had to cross the Qinghe River as soon as possible and arrive at Xindu, the capital of Jizhou.
As a general in Yanzhou's army who is second only to General Gou Xi, the general of the East, in the East, Gou Chun is very clear about the situation facing his brother, and is even more aware that Gou Xi's goal is not only to the plain country.
Due to Gou Xi's invincible record, the Central Plains thieves Liu Bogen, Wang Mi, Liu Ling and others were defeated one after another. Yan, Yu, Qing, and Xuzhou, who had experienced many years of war, gradually became stable. However, in this process, the governor of Yanzhou who had joined forces with the strong military became the target of Donghai King. Since last year, Gou Xi had clashed with Donghai King several times when appointing local officials in Yanzhou. It is obvious that His Highness Donghai King and Yanzhou are no longer as close as they were back then, but instead had the intention of hiding the birds and bows.
If it is an ordinary official, facing the powerful King Donghai, there is only one way to give in. But Gou Xi had no intention of giving in at all, and did not intend to hand over the military and political power of Yanzhou and go to Luoyang to be a noble court official. In Gou Xi's opinion, although King Donghai and his own status are divided into high and inferior, they are both ministers of the Great Jin and have no subordinates. Now that the emperor is in power, he has a lot of talent and reputation. If the ministers have any objections to political affairs, the emperor can make a judgment. However, King Donghai still controls the government affairs and intends to manipulate the court affairs, and uses his own shogunate Sima as the governor of Jizhou. How can he continue to see this?
The King of Donghai is so domineering that Yanzhou will be difficult to fight unless it expands its territory and strength on its own. Since it has defeated a group of bandits and has almost occupied the plains, this is the best start.
Gou Chun had no intention of resting the troops at all. He strictly ordered his subordinates to travel day and night to accelerate to the north. On the vast Hebei Plain, thousands of troops traveled in different ways, spanning dozens of miles from east to west. During the day, flags covered the sun, gongs and drums were loud; and at night, thousands of torches swayed, and the sound of commands shook the mountains and rivers.
After all, the soldiers had limited physical strength. After a day and a night of force, all the troops sparsely distributed on the plain stopped almost at the same time. Although their commander Gou Chun was still impatient and personally led his subordinates to set up a camp, the generals who led the troops had to choose a camping place and urged the soldiers to set up camps with their tired bodies and build food. According to General Zhe Chong's instructions, at most two hours later, the army would set off again, so the rest time in front of him became more and more precious.
The Yanzhou army at this time was very different from the previous few days. A few days ago, heavy rains in various parts of Jizhou made all roads become sparsely muddy. When marching at night, these continuous mud ponds brought terrible torture to the soldiers. They didn't know how many times they had slipped, so that they were covered with mud, and their clothes and armor were condensed into plate shapes. In order to move forward smoothly, all kinds of long weapons such as guns and halberds were used as crutches. As for how much soil someone ate or how many teeth they had knocked, it was simply ordinary.
Several teams sent as vanguards continued their journey dejectedly. Some grassroots officers complained that they were rushing to the road desperately, but they had not met the bandits yet, but instead they were exhausted. The higher-level officers knew that the army was not coming to suppress the bandits, but they just wanted to seize more benefits before the new governor of Jizhou took office. Since the bandits were vulnerable, the army could do their best to go as far as possible without worrying about it.
The army stretched east and west, and Gou Chun's central army was in the middle position between the covers of the two wings. At this time, almost all the soldiers of the central army sat on the ground, letting the generals shout, and they could not afford to lose their losses for a moment.
The Yanzhou army was mainly infantry and had few cavalry, so a small number of cavalry were armed to the maximum extent, and almost every cavalry had a vest and iron armor. These exquisite but heavy equipment was the guarantee for the soldiers to win in battle, but when they were trekking in the mud at night, it became a disgusting burden. More than a thousand armoured cavalrymen got separated during the march last night, and only six or seven hundred people were followed one after another. Some even lost their war horses and could only walk on foot.
Due to the difficulty of rushing at night, Gou Chun's general Xiahou Lie went back and forth to urge the horse to urge the marching, but he accidentally fell off the horse. Unfortunately, there was a thorn in the place where he was dropped. The thorn branches cut the inner side of his thighs, and the flesh was broken. For an old corpse like Xiahou Lie, this was just a minor injury, but when riding a horse, it was quite painful to rub the saddle, but he felt more comfortable walking. So he simply gave his horse to a subordinate who fell last night, and he leaned on his hand and limped forward.
Xiahou Lie was a son of the Xiahou clan of Qiao State. His ancestor Xiahou Ru served as the governor of Jingzhou, Yuzhou, and later became the magistrate of the dynasty. Because Xiahou Ru's brother Xiahou Xuan was involved in the political turmoil between the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the children of this clan were slaughtered, and the rest were exiled to Lelang County. Fortunately, local supervision was slackened, and Xiahou Lie fled back to the Central Plains and defected to his relatives after becoming an adult. After several twists and turns, he became the cavalry commander of the Yanzhou army with his archery and horse skills and led a cavalry team in the central army. In recent years, his courage and command ability have been given many opportunities to show his courage and command ability. He often served as a vanguard and rushed forward, and was regarded as one of the few brave generals in the Yanzhou army.
Xiahou Lie was not only brave and good at fighting, but also very strict in the army. Therefore, it was rare for his troops to maintain a cavalry team. They found an open flat ground to camp, threw the reins, let the horses eat grass, and each took out the dry cakes they carried with them to eat. Xiahou Lie sighed, and with the support of his subordinates, he slowly sat down with a dead tree.
Not far away from him, several soldiers drew water and tried to set up a fire to cook the rice and millet they carried. Somehow, the fire could not be lit. The soldiers were tired and hungry, and they beat the tile pots with curses and complained non-stop.
It was obvious that they were pursuing the victory, but why did they feel like they were defeated? Xiahou Lie sighed and shouted to them: "Dry the firewood first. The little guys didn't look carefully. These were all soaked, so how could they burn the fire!"
The soldiers responded and quickly went to find the high slope and spread the firewood flat for drying.
At this time, the sky on the west side was still dark and silent. But looking east, the dark and thick clouds that originally covered the sky seemed to have some signs of dispersion. Although the rising sun was still blocked by clouds, it shone through the gaps of the clouds, making the outline of the clouds bright and showing a warm red.
Maybe it will be a sunny day today. Xiahou Lie looked at the sky with some anticipation. Yesterday, he was traveling day and night, but due to the harsh road conditions, he didn't walk a few miles. This is too frustrating. As long as the sky clears up, the ground will soon dry and harden, and the road will be easier. Everyone work hard, maybe you can have a good sleep in Qinghe County at night!
But...for some reason, after the stacked clouds, there seemed to be a dull sound like thunder. No, right? Is it going to rain? Thinking of the hard work of marching in the rain, the soldiers looked at each other and all looked tragic.
Xiahou Lie put his palm behind his ears and tried to distinguish the origin of the thunder. Yes, there was indeed a vague tremor in the air, as if a furious demon was roaring in the distance, trying to waving his arms to cover the sky and tearing it apart the clouds that covered the sky, and trying to stomp his feet to smash the earth!
The tremor is getting closer and closer, clearer, gradually turning into a roar, turning into a loud roar like millions of beasts gathering and biting. Xiahou jumped up in a horror and looked around. The sky is still the same, and there is no accumulation of rain and clouds. The edge of the bright clouds is no longer as warm as it was. The red color actually turned out to be like a sharp blade flashing under the traces of blood, revealing a bone-black coldness.
Xiahou Lie grasped the short slap and waved his hand vigorously to his subordinates who were resting everywhere.
He wanted to shout, but his throat choked because of his excessive tension and could not make any noise. The soldiers were still busy with their affairs. In the distance, some soldiers watched him jump like a clown and sneered softly.
But such a relaxed laughter did not last long. More and more people felt the roar, and some people were even shocked to find that the pot of soup on the fire suddenly vibrated, and the soup in the pot was swaying, rippling with obvious ripples. Even... even the ground under their feet had already emitted a terrifying vibration!
Xiahou Lie pounded his chest hard and coughed up a mouthful of blood and phlegm.
"Enemy attack!" he shouted in a loud voice.
At this moment, at the end of the plain in the north, in the dark distant, sunken under the thick clouds, groups of black shadows were already visible to the naked eye!
That was the cavalry team of the Hebei bandits, no doubt.
They had no flags indicating the direction, no fixed queue, no golden drums that commanded the advance and retreat. Looking around, there were only a group of fierce men with upper bodies, disheveled hair like ghosts, waving all kinds of strange weapons in their hands, making heart-pounding roars, and galloping like furious bees.
They didn't care about the horsepower at all, but just sprinted wildly, rushing forward like a tide. Compared with their speed of horse racing, the movements of the Jizhou Army were so slow. The leaders of each branch and the leaders shouted at the whole team one after another, but they could not restrain their subordinates who were in a panic.
Before we could even recover the most basic organization, the bandits' cavalry had already rushed in front of us. Some particularly brave soldiers picked up the long spear beside them and stood up to meet the enemy. But facing the roaring and rushing cavalry, what role can the hard work of a few people play? Occasionally, several people stabbed the long spear into the belly of the enemy's cavalry with a determination to die. Other cavalry then ran through both sides, and passed through the sky with a long sword, and immediately took their lives with them with a light touch.
The bandits had neither iron armor nor leather armor. Many of them only carried the simplest weapons, which were pure light cavalry. Under normal circumstances, these cavalry could only be used for roaming and reconnaissance. They could not fight against heavy cavalry equipped with armored cavalry in the Jin army, nor could they break through the solid battle formation built by thousands of infantrymen. Almost every soldier of the Yanzhou army had experience in dealing with them, and no one took it seriously.
But at this moment, there were thousands and tens of thousands of such light cavalry. They made sharp screams with joy. Without armor, they used their flesh and blood to carry the swords and axes of the Jin army, and urged the war horses to crash into the dense places of the Jin people. On such a battlefield, life and death were all in an instant. After a wave of impact, nearly half of the first cavalry fell. They were either killed by the Jin people or trampled the Jin people to death. The subsequent troops were still continuously entering the battlefield, and countless iron hooves trampled into the Yanzhou army camp, tearing their crumbling queues torn apart.
Most of the Yanzhou infantrymen did not have time to form a formation. They were as helpless as facing a pack of lambs in front of the thieves' cavalry team. The thieves charged forward and fought invincible, ravaging the chaotic infantry with all their might. They used war horses to slash and stab the slaughter with long spears, knocked everywhere with wooden sticks inlaid with iron teeth, and shot with bows and arrows, and killed people when they saw them. Blood hit the air, turning into a strong odor of blood mist that never dissipated for a long time.
Under such a fierce and completely unexpected offensive, the central army of the Yanzhou Army quickly melted and collapsed like a handful of ice and snow exposed to the scorching sun.
Xiahou Lie finally found his war horse in time. He didn't care about calling out the defeated soldiers, and he didn't have time to rescue his colleagues surrounded by the enemy. He just rode his horse for half a circle and rushed south. This was not to escape, but to rely on his long-term combat experience to clearly analyze the situation on the battlefield: at this time, the entire army was completely in chaos and there was no room for counterattack. It was a foolish plan to try to attack the enemy head-on with his own courage. You must retreat and exit a considerable distance before you can regroup!
When he flew across the battlefield, many subordinates saw him and immediately gave up their opponents in front of him and joined him. The long-term experience of fighting side by side made each subordinate trust him. One horse, ten horses, hundreds, and hundreds of horses. This only cavalry team that could maintain the establishment gathered together in the blink of an eye, penetrated the enemy formation diagonally like a cloud and fog, and retreated in a bend.
Four enemy cavalry surrounded him from both sides with their horse speed. Before Xiahou Lie could see his opponent clearly, four iron spears had already stabbed him like poisonous snakes.
This is the iron spear that the Yanzhou cavalry is usually equipped with, and it is very well-made. Obviously, the bandits killed the Yanzhou cavalry and then seized the weapons of the dead and put them into battle.
A sudden fury arose in Xiahou Lie's heart. He roared and danced to meet him.
*******
Chapter completed!