Li Jinxiao jumped up and shouted: "Nonsense, where can the army come to intercept? Bring me the messenger!"
Not long after, two reporting soldiers were brought in. They were in a miserable state, their feet were bare, their legs were scratched by stones, and they were bloody. They were limping, their leather armor was gone, their clothes were in tatters, and their heads were covered with blood.
Wearing helmets, if they hadn't kept their military badges, no one would have believed they were soldiers.
Li Jinxiao frowned and shouted angrily: "What's going on with you?"
The two soldiers knelt down and said: "We are soldiers guarding the ship. At noon today, a lot of cavalry were suddenly killed. They were all Song troops. The brothers could not resist and suffered heavy casualties. We only managed to escape by diving into the water."
"Where is the Song army? How many people are there?" Li Jinxiao asked.
"I don't know where the Song army came from. There were about four to five thousand cavalry. They finally sent the fleet into Yang'an County."
Tang Qian still looked up to these soldiers. They put up the flag with the word "Wei" in an attempt to mislead the other side, but the other side's soldiers didn't know the flag at all and would not look at it.
Li Jinxiao was furious and shouted: "Send the order to send troops and go and chase the ship back immediately!"
Wu Miao, the magistrate of the state, quickly advised: "Commander, it's already dark outside, and it's easy to be attacked at night. It's better to go after dawn."
Zhang Jian also advised: "Since the fleet is in Yang'an County anyway, let's just go to Yang'an County with the army tomorrow and use Yang'an County to practice attacking the city."
This suggestion was not bad, so Li Jinxiao stopped sending troops and ordered: "Build siege ladders immediately, make them simpler, and we will build a hundred of them tonight."
Chen Qing's army had been waiting thirty miles to the south for a long time, but it took a long time for the enemy troops to move south. A dozen soldiers who ran back to report had already entered the camp for almost an hour, but the troops had not yet been dispatched. It seemed that there were
Something happened.
Chen Qing pondered for a moment and asked: "Ask logistics, how many drums do we bring?"
They carried a baggage of 10,000 camels, including the Zhentian Drum, which was the war drum used during the attack. The drums sounded like thunder.
After a while, the soldiers came back and reported, "I brought 300 drums!"
Three hundred noodles were enough, so Chen Qingdang immediately ordered: "The army goes north!"
Forty thousand cavalry gathered and marched toward the north. Not long after, the news reached the enemy's main camp. Li Jinxiao was shocked and ordered the entire army to assemble and prepare for battle.
The general he invited, Wang Jianxiong, came to Li Jinxiao urgently and said: "Marshal, our army has not been trained for night fighting. If we fight, it will cause serious chaos. We must not fight. We can just defend the camp."
His second son Li Yong also agreed with Wang Jianxiong's suggestion that he could not accept the battle and must defend the camp.
Li Jinxiao nodded, "Pass my order, don't fight, just defend the camp."
In the dark night, tens of thousands of soldiers stood in front of the camp fence with bows and arrows in hand, looking in horror at the Song Army cavalry two miles away. The endless cavalry, holding torches in their hands, looked like a sea of fire.
Forty thousand cavalry began to move and formed in three directions: south, south, north, and south. Only the west side had no troops.
Liu Qiong stared at the military camp for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, there is something wrong with the other camp. The tents are too close together and in the wind. I believe they are definitely not leather tents, but hemp tents. I suggest attacking them with fire."
Chen Qing shook his head and said: "There are only ten or twenty thousand people who should be killed. The others are ignorant farmers. They create food and taxes. It would be a pity to kill them. Just scare them home."
Chen Qing then ordered: "Drum formation!"
Three hundred sky-shaking drums were also arranged in three directions. At this time, Chen Qing gave the order to beat the soul-shaking drums.
The soul-shaking drum is a kind of psychological tactic, which is encountered in general wars, but the effect is different. For example, the Jin soldiers used the soul-shaking drum on the north bank of the Yellow River overnight, and the 100,000 Song troops on the other side ran away cleanly.
In the past few days, the Song army faced nearly 200,000 mobs, so Chen Qing decided to use the soul-shaking drum to wake up these things.
"Dong-dong-dong-dong-"
The soul-shaking drum is like muffled thunder in the sky. The sound of the drum is low and slow, but shocking. Every drum beat seems to hit the heart, making it unbearable for ordinary people, as if thousands of troops are about to attack.
The rebel soldiers were frightened and anxious.
But even this was not enough. At two o'clock, the Song army lit a mad dog iron fire thunder in the northeast corner of the enemy's camp.
"Boom!" The explosion was earth-shattering, the earth shook, and thick smoke shot straight into the sky.
This explosion woke up all the soldiers. It can be said that the explosion was the last straw that broke the camel's back. The soldiers were frightened and realized that not only would they get any benefits, but their lives would be lost here, especially when they thought of the murderous numbers.
With thousands of cavalry, all the soldiers were frightened.
The escape started from the northwest corner. The fence there was knocked down by soldiers. The whole battalion of soldiers fled the camp and fled in panic.
When Li Jinxiao got the news, he became furious and ran to the northwest corner himself.
The seriousness of the soldiers' flight was beyond Li Jinxiao's expectation. The entire northwest corner was empty. In just over an hour, more than 40,000 people fled.
Li Jinxiao was furious and yelled at a group of generals, "You are all a bunch of losers and trash. I spend so much money raising you, you are worse than raising pigs. From now on, anyone who dares to escape again will be killed by me without mercy!"
The generals were all frightened and swore that they would never let a single soldier escape again.
The Song Army's soul-suppressing drum was still beating loudly, beating in everyone's hearts. At the fourth watch, a soldier reported to Chen Qing that the number of fleeing traitors suddenly decreased.
Chen Qing knew that the enemy's general must have taken measures to threaten the soldiers with death, and the soldiers were too frightened to run away.
A dozen generals behind him were looking at Chen Qing, waiting for his instructions.
Chen Qing put his hands behind his hands and looked at the night sky and said coldly: "It seems that only the most brutal war killings will wake up these fools, Liu Dutong!"
"The humble post is here!" Liu Qiong responded.
"You lead 3,000 cavalry and charge in from the Zhengdong Gate, and go deep into the military camp for three miles to kill. You will have ten or so casualties. I will remember you for your great merit. If more than a hundred people were killed in battle, I will punish you with a serious crime!"
"I humbly obey the order!" Liu Qiong followed the order and went down.
A quarter of an hour later, the Song Army suddenly launched a feint attack in the east, catching the enemy by surprise. Many defensive soldiers lay on the ground and fell asleep. They all thought the drums would beat for a night, but they did not expect the Song Army to suddenly attack.
The Song Army's cavalry rushed forward in the blink of an eye, throwing ropes and pulling down the fence. The soldiers got up, but it was too late. The cavalry group passed over their heads and stabbed countless soldiers to death with their spears. Liu Qiong led three thousand cavalry in
In the camp, they were stabbed with spears and hacked with swords, killing the thieves until their heads were rolling, crying for their fathers and mothers, and running away desperately.
After two rounds of killing, more than 8,000 enemy troops were killed, and 3,000 cavalry were killed from the south. No one was killed or injured. It was simply a battle between wolves and sheep.
The air was filled with the pungent smell of blood. The bloody killings and the danger of death caused the rebel soldiers to completely collapse. The entire west fence was overturned. The soldiers fled frantically for their lives, including the generals who had sworn before, also packed up their belongings and left in panic.
Escape, no one is a fool, everyone with a discerning eye knows that the main force of the Song army is coming, and these tens of thousands of cavalry are enough to kill them without leaving any skin or armor.
If we don't run away at this time, we won't have a chance at dawn.
Even Wang Dongyuan and Zhang Jian realized that something was wrong, especially Wang Dongyuan who felt it the most. Several of his nephews led 10,000 troops to defend in the east. These 10,000 troops were all well-trained soldiers and equipped with armor.
Real soldiers are not just a bunch of people who just come to make do.
As a result, more than 4,000 of his 10,000 troops were killed by the Song cavalry. The other 5,000 or so people survived because they ran fast. What shocked him even more was that they did not see a single Song cavalry die.
Wang Dongyuan quietly told Zhang Jian the news. The two of them turned pale with fright. They immediately decided to send all their nephews away and fled Bashu with their families. As for Li Jinxiao, both of them tacitly understood that some responsibilities must be borne by him.
.
====
[I’m very sorry, Lao Gao is feeling a little unwell, so I’m asking for leave for one update. Today there are only two updates, and I will try to resume three updates tomorrow]