Changsun Cheng and Mai Tiezhang's 20,000 elite cavalry came from Lintao County. Their goal was to attack Mantou City directly, but if they wanted to capture Mantou City, they had to pass through Chishui City.
Chishui City is the source of the Yellow River and is the largest city south of Tuguhun King's City.
Mantou City, Chishui City, and Shudun City are the three southern parts of the royal city, Fuqi City.
Changsun Cheng first sent two thousand cavalry troops to harass Chishui City and led most of his main force out of the city. Then he formed an encirclement with superior force in a river valley and wiped out four thousand people.
Mai Tiezhang took this opportunity to attack Mantou City, and took down Mantou City before the opponent could react. After reuniting with Changsun Cheng, the 20,000 elite men with almost no losses attacked Shudun City again.
In Shudun City, they encountered the elite army of General Bo Chutu under Murong Fuyun.
After a fight, Zhang Suncheng and Mai Tiezhang's troops "fleeed" southward. Bo Cuitu was not fooled, but urgently asked for help from the royal city and found the main cavalry force of the Sui Dynasty.
The distance between Shudun City and Mantou City was only 160 miles. If they could not capture Shudun City, they could not garrison in Mantou City. So Chang Suncheng and the others retreated to Chishui City and sent out rangers to spy on the surrounding enemy situation.
The reason why the Bochu map appears in Shudun City is because Shudun City borders Chuihe County in the Sui Dynasty, and Zhou Fashang's southern army was stationed in Hejin County, one hundred and twenty miles away from Shudun City.
With the Sui army in the west and the main force of cavalry in the south, it was impossible for Bo Chutu not to panic. The troops in his hand plus Shudun City only totaled 16,000 cavalry, which could not stop the enemy forces from both directions.
, but Shudun City cannot be lost. If it is lost, the Sui army can march straight in from here and kill the royal city.
After waiting for three days, news came from the direction of the royal city. The Great Khan Murong Fuyun ordered him to lead the famous kings of Shudun City to withdraw to the royal city. Bo Chutu breathed a sigh of relief and began to arrange suspicious troops in order to withdraw safely.
Of course, Chang Suncheng refused to let go of this opportunity, so he harassed him frequently along the road.
However, Mai Tiezhang believed that the time had come to completely annihilate the enemy army, and there was no need to drag them to the south to fight. So he ignored Chang Suncheng's dissuasion and led his main force to fight with Bo Cui forty miles south of Mantou City.
Figure begins the decisive battle.
At the same time, Murong Lianchi's tribe, sent by Wangcheng to deal with Bo Cuitu, came out from the west and attacked Mai Tiezhang.
Seeing this, Zhang Suncheng could only contain him from the side, and a melee between the four armies began.
The two sides surrounded Mantou City and Shudun City, fighting intermittently, so that abandoned war horses and dead soldiers could be seen everywhere in the surrounding valleys.
In the direction of Hejin County, after receiving the news, Zhou Fashang urgently dispatched the only three thousand cavalry under his command to go out for support, and urgently reported to the Marshal's Mansion in Jincheng County.
"Why are they fighting here?" Gao Jiong slammed the table angrily: "This place is less than four hundred miles away from the royal city. If Murong Fuyun leads the main force to attack, the main force of our southern cavalry army will be in danger."
Now the only one who can support Zhang Suncheng and others is Zhou Fashang, but Zhou Fashang's main task is to provide support to the southern part of Shi Wansui's troops, and the majority of them are infantry, so the support is very limited.
According to the military report from the front, Murong Lianchi's troops had at least 15,000 cavalry. As a result, Chang Suncheng and the others were already at a disadvantage in terms of numbers.
Of course, 20,000 versus 30,000 were not impossible to fight, but they couldn’t be spent here to over-consume the few cavalry troops of the Sui Dynasty.
After Yang Ming's marshal's department took away Shi Wanbao's 5,000 cavalry, there were only about 7,000 left.
At this time, Gao Yan looked at Yang Ming and said:
"Chang Suncheng and Mai Tiezhang are the main forces in the decisive battle in the future and must be rescued. If they are used up, even if we take Fuqi City, it will be in vain."
Yang Ming said with a gloomy face: "What are they doing? My king's general order made it clear at the time that the attack could not be carried out until it was delayed to Jishi Town. Changsun Cheng should not have made such a big mistake."
"Changsun has always been strict. The problem should be with Mai Tiezhang. It is useless to say more now. Your Highness should send troops to support immediately and strictly ordered Zhangsun and his two men to withdraw south immediately," Gao Jie said.
Yang Ming nodded, he had to save him. Most of Shi Wansui's troops were infantry. Even if they captured the royal city in the future, there would be no way to defend an isolated city without the support of most of the cavalry outside.
Then it depends on who is suitable to rescue.
In the hall, many generals took the initiative to ask for help.
It would be best if Li Jing was here, but it is a pity that he was not brought out.
Yang Ming felt that this task was not suitable to be left to mature people. Older people were hesitant and not suitable to be a surprise soldier.
"Su Lie," Yang Ming said solemnly.
Su Lie was startled, then quickly turned to Yang Ming, saluted and said, "I'm here for my humble duty."
"I will allocate five hundred men from my army to you, and I will equip you with five thousand cavalry, all of whom are under the age of twenty. Remember, after charging into the formation, kill them all, and order the eldest son to be successful, and the Mai Tiezhang to retreat southward.
, retain the main force, and those who do not follow will be beheaded on the spot."
Su Lie took a deep breath, looked extremely excited, and said loudly: "I accept my order in this humble position."
Although Gao Yan was also surprised as to why Yang Ming sent a young man with no experience in commanding troops to take on this important task, but thinking about it on the other hand, this kind of thing is really only suitable for young people who are full of blood and risk their lives.
, those sons of aristocratic families cherish their lives too much.
After receiving the general's order, Su Lie immediately prepared his troops and horses with the assistance of the royal family.
It only took two hours for five thousand elites to leave Xihe County.
On the way, Su Lie ignored the fatigue of his men and horses and marched as fast as possible. After a day and a night, he successfully arrived at Shudun City.
Mai Tiezhang also knew that he had made a mistake and had been trying to break out to the south. He could not lead his troops westward into Chuihe County, otherwise it would implicate Zhou Fashang and disrupt the deployment of the Chinese army.
But there is another problem when heading south, and that is the Yellow River.
Although this is the uppermost reaches of the Yellow River and the water level is not very high, crossing the Yellow River is not an easy task, especially if there are pursuers behind you, and you cannot forcefully cross the river.
But now, he has been completely separated from Chang Sun Cheng by the enemy army. He doesn't even know where Chang Sun Cheng is now.
If it continues like this, not to mention being surrounded by enemy troops, there is also the danger of being dispersed. At that time, he will have to commit suicide to apologize for losing the main force of the cavalry.
It was at this time that scouts came from the rear to report that reinforcements had arrived. They rushed directly into the enemy's Shudun City, tore up the formation and scattered the Shudun City. The general received an order from the King of Qin and ordered Mai Tiezhang to withdraw south immediately.
Mai Tiezhang was overjoyed: "Who is the general?"
"It seems to be King Qin's Ku Zhi," the scout said.
Mai Tiezhang said in surprise: "But that young boy in the arena in the suburbs of Beijing?"
"That's him!" said the scout.
I thanked him for his eight generations of ancestors. If I can save the main force this time, I am willing to become a brother with him. Mai Tiezhang did not dare to neglect, and hurriedly led the army south along the Yellow River, collecting scattered tribes, rectifying the troops and horses, and encountered a small group of obstacles on the way.
, it doesn’t matter anymore.
The troops commanded by Su Lie are all young men, the kind of young men who can punch through steel plates. They are all very murderous.
Such a new force is undoubtedly very terrifying. Su Lie has no experience in commanding troops and does not understand tactics. Apart from having a map, he only has the courage to not be afraid of death.
Five thousand people directly attacked the Shudun City to pieces. Of the three thousand cavalry sent by Zhou Fashang, only two thousand were left. After seeing the reinforcements, they subconsciously moved closer to Su Lie.
However, they discovered that as they got farther and farther away, the supporting troops in front seemed to have no intention of joining them.
So these two thousand people, led by the general Yang Cai, always stayed behind Su Lie's butt.
Chang Suncheng had already withdrawn to the south. After he was divided by the enemy, he knew that he could no longer save Mai Tiezhang, so nothing could happen to his unit, otherwise the main cavalry army in the south would be completely destroyed.
After entering Chishui City, Changsun Cheng sent scouts everywhere to spy on the whereabouts of the Mai Tiezhang Department. In the evening, the good news came that the main force of the Mai Tiezhang Department still had 7,000 people and was heading towards Chishui City.
Su Lie simply attacked wherever he went. He did not send any scouts at all. He marched in a hurry all the way. Wherever there were enemy troops, he rushed to kill them.
If you can't bear to sit down on a war horse, it doesn't matter. There are ownerless war horses scattered around, so you can just change them.
People can't stand it? It doesn't exist. They are all young and energetic people. They have already become red-eyed. After drinking water and eating solid food, they can continue to work.
Murong's Lianchi tribe, Bochu Tu tribe and Shuduncheng tribe all fled and were killed by five thousand people.
Fuqi City, Imperial Palace.
Pushe Tuoba Shiya said:
"It seems that the main force of the Sui army's cavalry should be in the south. In Qilian City in the north, there will not be many cavalry. If we advance from the north to the south, I'm afraid that the main force of the King of Qin will be in the middle, aiming to locate our royal city."
Murong Fuyun said with a gloomy face: "Pei Ju, this sinister villain, still writes to me, saying that the Sui army is looking for war horses. Qilian City is gone, and he is still looking for horses?"
"This man is the most insidious, and you can't believe a word he says," said Shangshu Zhao Xin: "We can order King Tuolai, King Datongshan and King Linqiang to unite and recapture Qilian City."
"Qilian City is no longer important now. King Qilian is gone. What's the use of taking it back?" Pushe Tuoba Shiya said.
In the palace at this time, Bamushe, the son of the famous king of Qilian City, was also there. Hearing this, he stood up and said:
"Although my father is dead, the tribes are scattered all over the place. Please give me 2,000 men from the Great Khan so that I can collect tribesmen from the north."
Murong Fuyun nodded: "You go down first and let me think about it again."
Bamushe looked helpless and could only retreat.
Without the famous king of the tribe, he was nothing. If he didn't need to know the situation on the frontline from him, Murong Fuyun would not have let him enter the palace.
After the people left, Murong Fuyun said: "I also guess that the Sui army intends to attack the royal city, but there are large armies in the north and south. If I give up and do not save it, the royal city will also be lost. What do you think?"
Tuoba Shiya said: "The Great Khan had better take his family papers and move westward to the Dang River area. We can gather all the elites of the royal court and go south or north. As long as my main force is here, it doesn't matter even if we lose the royal city."
"
"I agree," Zhao Xin said: "As long as the main force of the Sui army's cavalry is defeated, the infantry is nothing to be afraid of. We can get it back even if we lose the royal city. What we are most afraid of is that the Sui army will attack them separately, causing our main force to be defeated."
Scattered and fighting on their own, this is the worst situation."
After Murong Fuyun was silent for a long time, he gritted his teeth:
"Contact all the ministries immediately, move closer to the royal court, and then concentrate the main force to destroy Changsun Cheng in the south first."