When Liu Bei started to mention horse speed, a thought suddenly popped into his mind:
"These Taishan thieves didn't run away when they saw us?"
That's right, when Liu Bei and others appeared in a burst of smoke, the Taishan Army's baggage team, although panicked, still tried hard to push the carts horizontally, trying to form a formation.
But it's a pity that it would be fine if they only had five or six large vehicles, but this convoy has fifty vehicles, and there is no time to move sideways and form a circle.
Seeing the knights of the Han Army roaring and about to rush in, they could no longer maintain their composure and got under the cart one after another. The behavior of these Taishan thieves and transport soldiers once again shocked Liu Bei. He realized that these people had obviously been trained , knowing that being chased by cavalry in the wilderness can only lead to death.
Liu Bei's mind was racing, and he suddenly looked up at the few inconspicuous hills in the southeast direction. The more he looked at it, the more something was wrong. He was so excited that he suddenly shouted to both sides while riding on his horse:
"Turn left, turn left."
The cavalrymen were shocked when they heard his order, but their horses had already picked up speed and could no longer turn. They didn't know why Liu Bei gave this order.
But then, they understood.
I saw a wave of cavalry suddenly appearing on the slope in front of me on the right. Before I could take a closer look, I saw more and more cavalry rushing down.
Liu Bei was still shouting:
"Don't slow down your horse and bump into them. Just bump into them."
After saying that, he once again raised his horse speed and kept pace with his sworn brother Zhang Fei. The two of them wanted to be the spearhead and pierce through the opposing cavalry.
Liu Bei is worthy of being an old man who can fight in the world in the future. At this time, he has shown the courage that a cavalry commander should have. Since I can't escape, then I will kill him!
This time the cavalry general who led the army to ambush Liu Bei's cavalry was Li Fu.
The two brothers Li Fu and Li Bi have shown extraordinary military talents since they joined the army in Laiwu. Li Bi was responsible for leading a battalion, and Li Fu became a cavalry general commanding 200 people. The pursuit of Yanzhou Mu Huang Wan was defeated by the Huya Camp. At this time, he was at least a cavalry general who was responsible for his duties.
At this time, Li Fu looked at the Han cavalry charging straight from the opposite side. His eyes narrowed, and he crouched on the horse's back, with the horse's shaft in his hand flat, ready to face the impact.
But suddenly, Li Fu found that the cavalry on the opposite side began to disintegrate. Some Hu cavalry who were obviously discerning their positions withdrew from the charging formation. The originally tight charging formation on the opposite side fell into pieces. Li Fu Overjoyed, he played the bone flute again and ordered the cavalry to speed up.
Liu Bei couldn't see behind him, but when he heard the scolding of his own rangers behind him, he knew that the gang of bastards had fled in the face of the battle. At this time, he was panicking to death. He glanced at his sworn brother beside him and saw that he was still so fearless. settle down.
Finally, before the Han cavalry was about to collide with the Taishan Army cavalry, Liu Bei shouted:
"Youzhou horses, kill, kill, kill!"
The rangers who were still following him also became fierce and shouted:
"Kill, kill, kill."
Compared with the outbreak of Han cavalry, the Taishan Army cavalry was very calm. After all, they had 200 cavalry, and the only ones who could charge at the opposite side were 20 cavalry. Ten of them charged one, so it was easy to pick them up.
But after the impact, the Taishan Army realized that they had encountered something ruthless.
Amid the shouts of dozens of people, the Han cavalry and the Taishan army collided.
Li Fu, who was also the leader, collided directly with Liu Bei. Before he could react, the horse from the opposite cavalry struck his horse on the neck. The horse under his command was hit by this blow, and the hind hooves stood upright in pain.
Then he fell down.
At this moment, Li Fu seemed to hear the Lord of Taishan Mansion whispering beside him. But Li Fu had his own luck and his fate should not be cut off. At the moment when the horse stood facing the wind, Li Fu did not hesitate in the face of danger and quickly threw off the stirrup.
Then he pushed his horse's back hard, using it as a support, jumped directly to the side, and then rolled continuously on the ground. Fortunately, the Han cavalry on the opposite side had a loose front, leaving a large space in the middle. Otherwise, Li Fu would have been killed even if he jumped out.
Trampled to death by a horse.
Li Fu landed on the ground, pulled out his Huanshou sword, and started to look for the lone Han cavalry. He happened to meet someone who was stabbing the Taishan Army. He pulled the man down with one hand, and then stabbed the man to death with the force of his Huanshou sword.
, then jumped on his horse and started running again. He wanted to return to the team and prepare to attack again.
Li Fu survived the catastrophe, but many of his subordinates were not as lucky as him. Because they met Zhang Fei, a man whose name would go down in history as an enemy of thousands of people.
After Zhang Fei entered the fighting state, he no longer jumped out of the usual way and was terrifyingly calm. In the first collision, he was faced with a rough warrior with a beard. Zhang Fei reached out and pulled the horse under his arm.
The sword stabbed forward suddenly. The horse's hairpin broke, and the front part of the hairpin was inserted into the bearded warrior's mouth, piercing it.
Then, Zhang Fei pulled out the iron bone from his waist, bent down and smashed at a moth thief who had fallen off his horse. With the speed of his horse and the torque of his waist, he smashed the man's skull over with great force.
Zhang Fei's face was also red and white.
But it wasn't over yet. There was a rope loop at the end of the tieguduo. Zhang Fei slipped his hand and put the tieguduo on his wrist. Then he bent down again and picked up two small axes from the robe.
Zhang Fei held a small ax in one hand, sighted the two moth thief knights on the opposite side, and swung them past, causing the two knights to fall off their horses.
Then he took out the ring-shou sword and held it with his right hand, and tightened the rope on his left wrist. Then he started to swing the ring-shou sword with his right hand to drive away the horses on the opposite side, and swung the iron bones with his left hand, specifically hitting the saddles of the Taishan Army knights.
On this cruel battlefield, Zhang Fei was at a loss for words, and there was no enemy under his command.
But Zhang Fei suddenly saw that Liu Yan had been defeated. This man was the ranger who had a conflict with the Qi people before. He was also a member of the Liu family in Lousang, and he was still regarded as his brother's nephew.
In fact, the sudden retreat of the Hu cavalry during this charge had something to do with Liu Yan. It was not because he hated Qi Ren, but because his fuse caused Zhang Fei to injure Taton.
Ordinary bastards would not dare to run away from the battlefield, because after returning, the Han cavalry generals would die in battle, and these people would all die. But if they did not go back, they would be unfamiliar with the place where they were born in the Han county, and would either be killed by the local tyrants or be killed by local tyrants.
The thieves nearby were hunted, but they were still dead. Moreover, their tribe members, old and young, were still in the hands of the Han people, so they did not dare to run away.
But Taton and the others are different. They have no worries at all. They originally joined the army to see the real situation of the Han people. If Taton had not been injured before, he would have followed Liu Bei in this battle. But now he is injured, and his arm
With his broken bones, he has no fighting ability at all. If he really goes out and rushes, he will really be dead.
So, when he saw that the opposite slope was full of thieves, he glanced at his companions and ran away decisively. Originally, there were only eight people on his side, but his running directly affected other barbarians who also ran away.
The instinct of survival overwhelms any rational analysis. No matter whether they will die later, they can just live now anyway.
But even though Liu Yan was somewhat responsible for the current situation, Zhang Fei still had no intention of abandoning him. After all, this man was considered half of his nephew.
So he rode over to pull Liu Yan away.
At this time, Liu Yan stood on the ground and screamed wildly, waving the sword in his hand everywhere, blindly blocking the spear tips and swords of the Taishan Army's sudden cavalry. Waiting for Zhang Fei to smash away the moths surrounding Liu Yan.
After the thief, he slapped Liu Yan's knife away, then threw away the ring-shou knife, picked him up on the horse with one hand, and then broke out again.
Zhang Fei rescued Liu Yan, but lost the Huanshou Sword in his hand. At the same time, he also saw that the boy Qianzhao had also fallen off his horse and was using bows and arrows to fight back against the Taishan Army.
Looking at Liu Yan who was trembling a little, Zhang Fei felt a little regretful. He shouted to Qianzhao:
"Run north to the ruins."
After that, regardless of whether he could hear the move or not, he continued to gallop away.
Soon Liu Bei also came closer. At this time, his horse was stained with blood and was stabbed by an unknown weapon. He was breathing heavily.
Zhang Fei was anxious and asked Liu Bei:
"Brother, are you injured?"
Liu Bei was already sweating profusely and had no more energy to speak. He shook his head at Zhang Fei, and then pointed to his horse, indicating that the horse was dying.
Zhang Fei still didn't understand what his brother meant. He wanted to rush out by himself, but he couldn't do it anymore. But how could Zhang Fei be willing to let his brother die here.
He pulled Liu Yan away from the horse, jumped off the horse and left the horse with Liu Bei, letting him go while he stayed behind.
But Liu Bei just shook his head and kept breathing.
Zhang Fei gritted his teeth and was about to pull Liu Bei onto his horse. Suddenly, he saw three cavalrymen coming from the side to kill him. Zhang Fei was so happy that he smashed the head of one of the cavalrymen with the iron bone flower in his hand. Then he took it from Liu Bei's hand.
He took the Huanshou knife and ran over.
Over there, the remaining two riders suddenly saw their own Pao Ze's head being smashed. They were shocked, but then they were filled with anger. The two looked at each other, one to the left and the other to the right, and at the same time bent down and slashed Zhang Fei diagonally.
Zhang Fei faced a combined attack from both sides, shouted loudly, and then jumped up like plucking onions on dry land. He directly grabbed the two opponents with his left and right hands, then used his arms suddenly with force, and smashed their two heads together. The two people were bleeding from their orifices, and they were no longer alive.
live.
In this way, Zhang Fei relied on his own bravery to steal three horses, and then added his own horse. He took Liu Bei, Liu Yan, three of them and four horses and rode away.
Liu Bei cried and regretted on his horse:
"It's all my fault, everyone, Ah Zhao, Ah Bo, you must survive."
----------
The three of Liu Bei rushed out, but more of the rangers fell off their horses and were stranded on the battlefield. Under the coordination of Qianzhao and Xiahou Bo, they picked up their weapons one after another and formed a small formation to hold on on the battlefield.
No one wanted to surrender, because they knew after joining the Youzhou Cavalry Order that the Han army took no prisoners. So they knew that once they fell into the hands of those moth thieves who resisted out of despair, they would probably die.
.
So they could only accept their fate.
But before that, they wanted to show these Central Plains people the bloody nature of their northern men. So, they stood next to each other, shoulder to shoulder, and tried hard to hold the picked up horses high and form a strong formation.
They have to drag a few backers to their death.
At this time, Li Fu came over on horseback covered in blood. He looked at the eight warriors who were still fighting despite all odds, and felt a little respect in his heart.
He thought that when he followed Qushuai to fight across the Huaiyi River that year, he had also encountered such a general, his name was Liu Yan. He and his battalion soldiers still stood firm in their position in the face of Qushuai's overwhelming rain of arrows.
And now the same goes for these eight people. Their master has passed away, but these people can still be loyal and can be called righteous men.
But Li Fu looked at his cavalry again. In this battle, they lost sixteen cavalry, and eight of them were killed by a warrior with a leopard head and eyes. What kind of combat power is this? It is probably Guan Xiaowei,
Dian Jun, Li Jun and others have such courage.
The death of his brothers also made Li Fu sad. He decided to give an explanation to his brothers and give those eight people a chance.
So he rode forward and said in a deep voice to Qianzhao and others:
"Now I give you a choice. Those who are willing to surrender can live. But those who want to continue fighting, I will satisfy all of you."
After saying that, Li Fu retreated to the formation without saying another word, leaving Qian Zhao and others to make their own decisions.
As soon as Li Fu left, Qian Zhao, Xia Houbo, Gongsun Xian, Li Xiong, Tan Tai, Liu Rong, Liu Li and Zhuoying started to quarrel.
Gongsun Xian and Li Xiong said:
"It's only right that we fight for our eldest brother. Why should we die if we can live now?"
The words of the two people directly aroused the anger of Liu Rong, Liu Li, and Zhuo Ying. They all scolded the two for being greedy for life and afraid of death. If a man from Youzhou dies, he will die. This loyalty cannot be lost.
Gongsun Xian and Li Xiong turned red after being scolded, and finally turned to ask Xiahou Bo:
"Abo, tell me whether we surrender or die."
Xiahou Bo sighed and looked at the direction Liu Bei left, speechless. No matter what Gongsun Xian and Li Xiong said, he just didn't say a word, and no one knew what he meant.
Liu Rong is a member of the Liu clan in Lousangli and is the core of Liu Bei. He has some ideas:
"Those moth thieves said that we can survive if we surrender, so why not surrender first and run away when the time comes, so that we can have a chance to meet my brother again. Otherwise, it is meaningless to waste our lives here."
Zhuo Ying didn't expect Liu Rong to change his mind when he turned around and cursed:
"What are you talking about? What is meaningless? This is sacrificing one's life for justice!"
But another member of the Liu family in Lousangli, Liu Li, suddenly interjected:
"What if those moth thieves cheated us? If we vote, what if we suddenly break the contract?"
Zhuo Ying looked at Liu Rong and Liu Li, dumbfounded and speechless for a long time.
Finally, everyone looked at Qianzhao to see what he thought.
Qianzhao sighed, put away his sword, and said:
"Those moth thieves won't lie to us. Just a few of us can be shot to death, so why do we need to live in vain?"
Not only Gongsun Xian said this, but Li Xiong nodded repeatedly, and even Liu Rong and Liu Li smiled. Only Xiahou Bo and Zhuo Ying were silent, while the other cursed.
Lianzhao pointed at Paoze lying on the battlefield outside, and said painfully again:
"These brothers came out with us and are now lost in Xingyang. As their brothers, we must take them back to our hometown to prevent them from becoming lonely ghosts in a foreign land. And if we all die, who will
Can we still send our bodies back?"
This sentence made everyone silent. Yes, death is not terrible, but if you die in a foreign country and can no longer receive sacrifices from your family, then you will really become a lonely ghost.
As a result, even Zhuo Ying, who was the most determined to seek death, fell silent and acquiesced to surrender along with everyone else.
The seven people discussed it, and then they noticed that Tan Tai had been kneeling over there, facing the north, without saying a word the whole time.
Qianzhao and others were surprised when Zhuo Ying, who was nearest, touched Tan Tai, and then Tan Tai's body leaned down. Only then did everyone see that Tan Tai had killed himself with a broken blade. Then
The broken blade stabbed straight up from his lower jaw, killing him.
Zhuo Ying was startled, and then blushed with embarrassment. Tan Tai's death made the seven of them look so pale no matter how much they said it, and even Zhuo Ying's sacrifice of life for justice seemed ridiculous.
Finally, seven people carried Tan Tai and chose to surrender to Li Fu.
In this way, Liu Bei's starting point was wiped out here.
------------------
When Liu Bei and the other three were fleeing, there were many cavalry officers who encountered the same situation as him. In short, this time the Youzhou Cavalry chose to believe in Huang Wan's military strategy and launched an attack on the Taishan Army's food road.
Lost.
This time, a whole thousand-man cavalry regiment was divided into more than twenty groups to launch multiple attacks along the Taishan Army's thirty-mile food road, but they happened to run into the nets of Taishan's cavalry. A full three thousand cavalry lurked, and successively
Seventy-two Han officials were killed, sixteen general flags were captured, 300 cavalry were forced to surrender to Youzhou, and 800 war horses were captured.
It can be said that this counter-invasion attack directly prevented the Youzhou Cavalry from running around on the battlefield, and the Taishan Army temporarily gained the initiative on the battlefield.
When these battle reports were delivered to Huang Wan, he was completely shaken. Attached to the military report was a letter from the commander of the Youzhou Cavalry, Zong Yuan. He had great doubts about Huang Wan's commanding ability, and not only impeached Huang Wan, but also
He also said that the remaining Youzhou Tuqi were seriously injured and could no longer fight, so they would lead the cavalry back to Hebei.
This was undoubtedly a heavy blow to Huang Wan. Without the cooperation of Youzhou's sudden cavalry, it would be a stretch for him to even survive this battle, let alone defeat the Taishan Army on the opposite side.
This matter was already very frustrating, but then another incident happened.
The Hedong soldiers made a noise.
Huang Wan's face turned pale when he received the news. His staff said it was not a noise or a mutiny, but Huang Wan didn't even recover.
The reason why the Hedong soldiers were making noise was very ridiculous. It turned out to be because they were not used to eating rice.
Huang Wan immediately wanted to scold these people for being so mean. Is the rice not as delicious as that millet? You must know that the rice shipped from Taicang is a tribute from Jianghuai. His Majesty specially sympathized with the hardships of the soldiers marching to the east and transferred it to the army.
Come.
Now these idiots are making trouble because they can't get used to eating good food?
It was so funny.
But no matter how much he laughs, he still wants to appease them. Who told Huang Wan to be inseparable from the Hedong soldiers?
In fact, Huang Wan is also suffering. The soldiers of the Han Dynasty can endure hardships naturally. They can survive even if they are given rice, let alone rice. But who told him to encounter the Hedong soldiers? The combat effectiveness of the Hedong soldiers must be unparalleled.
But precisely because he has strong fighting power, is the leader of the Three Rivers, and has a wealthy family, he also has the experience of struggling upward.
Moreover, this group of Hedong soldiers also included many Liangzhou soldiers. These were placed by Dong Zhuo, the governor of Hedong, when he took office. No one knows why Dong Zhuo placed these people into the army.
If the Hedong soldiers were just arrogant, then under the instigation of the Liangzhou soldiers, they were simply unreasonable. Now that they had caused trouble and surrounded the old commander's camp, they simply did not do anything in these years. Not only did they propose the following plans
They were provided with wheat, rice, vegetables and meat, and wages.
Yes, these Hedong soldiers actually asked for pay before the war.
No wonder Huang Wan was surprised, because the Han Dynasty had always spent two types of expenses on raising soldiers, one was millet and the other was clothing. In non-war times, they were given two stones and six measures of millet per month, three liters of salt per month, and one robe for summer clothing.
One piece of clothing, one hakama. In wartime, three measures of millet and three measures of grain were given in January, then two sets of clothing in summer and winter, and four liters of salt per month.
Money is never given out here. Of course, there are exceptions, that is, the military officials are rich. From the lowest-level food-fighting officer, who is paid 900 yuan a month, to the middle and low-level military officials who are 200 dan, they are paid 2,000 yuan a month.
.But these are all issued to military officials. How can everyone in the Hedong soldiers be issued?
In another situation, money will be given out, but that is a post-war reward.
Generally, when an army achieves a great victory, the emperor will mint corresponding amounts of gold to reward meritorious soldiers. For example, when Emperor Xiaowu of the former Han Dynasty went out to attack the Xiongnu, all the soldiers under General Wei Qing who beheaded and captured were given gold, with a total reward of more than 200,000 catties.
This is also a tradition passed down from the Western Zhou Dynasty. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, those who had military merits were rewarded with copper materials, and then cast into bronze vessels, and inscriptions corresponding to the deeds of the meritorious deeds were left on the bronze vessels to reward them.
But now that the war is not over, what kind of money do these Hedong soldiers want?
Therefore, in Huang Wan's opinion, this is nonsense.
So, Huang Wan asked his staff to talk to those Hedong soldiers again and ask them what they wanted to do.
Soon the staff came back, and Ai Ai replied to Huang Wan:
"My lord, those Hedong soldiers said that they also knew that they wanted money before the war and were inconsistent with the system. They also understood my lord that it was not easy for you to maintain the current situation. So I just said that after the war, you can give them some cattle, horses, dogs and pigs."
When Huang Wan heard this, his eyes widened and he shook his head again:
"I can't even give you the money, so where are the cattle, horses, dogs and pigs from? Besides, what do these prodigal soldiers want dogs for? For hunting? To feed themselves?"
The staff member coughed twice and explained to Huang Wan:
"My lord, this cow and horse are not that cow and horse, and this dog and pig are not that dog and pig."
"what for?"
"The so-called cows and horses often wear the clothes of cows and horses; the so-called dog piggers often eat the food of dogs and pigs. But these things all mean the same thing, that is, human beings are slaves."
Finally, the staff stopped beating around the bush and told Huang Wan that they were allowed to take back the prisoners who the Hedong soldiers wanted to divide among themselves after the war.
And he also explained to Huang Wan the motive of Hedong Bing doing this.
As a son of the public family, Huang Wan didn't know much about the market price of a human slave. His staff told him that each of these slaves could be sold for 40,000 yuan, which was the same as 20 acres of land, two healthy oxen, and 40 shi of millet. Although the world was
Unfortunately, the prices of grain and cattle have gone up, but the price of a slave is still high.
So those Hedong soldiers saw the economic value of the moth thieves on the opposite side, and because the Han army frequently killed prisoners, these Hedong soldiers thought of this, so as to make a fortune after the war.
But these were seen by the staff themselves. In fact, the reason behind the Hedong soldiers was that their Hedong conscription was too harsh this year, and many places had been abandoned, and they were about to take these prisoners back to their hometowns for farming.
This reason is also true. There are 570,000 Fu people in Hedong, and 93,000 households. The maximum levy can be one soldier per four households. Hedong is Yinfu. If the drums are used, there will only be 20,000 people. But
Previously, Huangfu Song formed the Knights of Three Rivers and took away 5,000. Now he has drawn another 3,000. There are still 3,000 left to garrison in the county. At this time, the troops in Hedong are indeed at their limit.
After listening to his staff explain this clearly, Huang Wan finally understood the thoughts of these Hedong soldiers. For him, all he had to do was understand what the Hedong soldiers wanted. Didn't they want prisoners? Here! Don't they want wheat, meat and vegetables? Here!
As long as you win this battle well, you will get whatever you want.
Whether or not you will be given a reward if you win the battle later is another matter, but this is an empty reward first promised.