Xu Huai led hundreds of white-robed cavalry to cut through the gap exposed in the southwest corner of the Qing Shun army's array. Like a sharp sword, it cut into the heart with an unstoppable force.
The Qing Shun Army had too many places to take care of, and it was unable to organize an effective interception at this position, or even a simple flank containment. Cao Shixiong reined in his horse and stopped on the river embankment in the south of the city, which mainly protected Lanzhou City.
I watched helplessly as Chu Shanqi cut into the heart of my formation and disrupted it.
At this moment, Cao Shixiong seemed to see his internal organs being smashed to pieces by a sharp blade, which was so painful that he wanted to die.
It's not that Cao Shixiong didn't want to contain the white-robed cavalry's fierce offensive, which was like ripping silk.
However, among the elite around him, there are only a dozen guards left.
If this small number of manpower were really sent forward, in front of hundreds of elite Chushan Cavalry, they might not even be able to stir up a wave and would be swallowed up, and they might not even be able to block Xu Huai's blade.
At this time, he felt more deeply how stupid and wrong it was to bury Cao Shili and 500 cavalry in the Zhufeng Gorge Road because of blind confidence that there could be no ambush in Lanzhou.
Without elite cavalry to cover the flanks, the infantry formation looked clumsy under the constant attack of elite cavalry.
He couldn't help it, he was determined not to leave the city, and it might be a better choice to sacrifice Zhou Huan's troops decisively.
The soldiers of the Qingshun army in the heart were killed and cried to the heavens and the earth, crying for their fathers and mothers. They evaded the Chu Shanqi soldiers in panic and rolled up to both sides like waves broken by a giant boat.
Even though Cao Shixiong felt helpless, he would not give up the final struggle.
What if Xu Huai, a thief, makes a mistake? What if reinforcements are gathered from Shuozhou faster than expected?
At this time, the Qing Shun army's array on the west flank and advancing south was still in good order. Cao Shixiong could not watch them being disrupted by the soldiers who were unable to resist and fled in panic, so he sent out the few guards behind him and ordered all the troops to do whatever it takes.
The price is to attack to the outside, widen the distance from the defeated troops in the heart, or there is a slight possibility of using the superiority of troops to wrap up Chushan's troops riding on both sides and engage in a melee.
Unfortunately, the Fenshui River Valley on the south side of Lanzhou City is far less open than imagined.
The distance from Gaoling District to the river bank is only seven or eight miles. More than 5,000 soldiers of the Qing Shun Army came out of the city and formed an array along the river bank, which was three miles deep. After that, the array was still harassed and attacked by the Chushan Cavalry, and was compressed even more.
close.
On such a small battlefield, how could the infantry run as fast as the cavalry?
Of course, Pan Chenghu and Yin Peng would not give the Qing Shun Army a chance to entangle them on the west wing.
Seeing thousands of enemy soldiers rushing towards them, they and their generals quickly turned their horses and cut diagonally to the north and south sides to leave the battlefield and distance themselves from the Qing Shun army.
The captured soldiers of Qin Feng Bujia, Xiao Yanhan, and Tianxiong Army led by Zheng Jinqing and Chen Zixiao were of course unable to leave the battlefield at this time, but they were also shrinking closer at this moment to resist the impact of the Qing Shun Army from the north.
At this time, even if the Qing Shun army can surround Zheng Jinqing and Xiao Yanhan, what can they do?
Could the Qing Shun army be able to wipe out these two troops when they were defeated by Chushan's cavalry and were crying to the ground?
The two troops of Zheng Jinqing and Xiao Yanhan were like two huge rocks, standing guard in front of the Shili Fengxue Pavilion in the south of Lanzhou City, choking the Qing Shun army from going south.
Although soldiers continued to fall, they still blocked thousands of Qing Shun troops on the north side.
Pan Chenghu led 300 Chushan cavalry to gallop south quickly from between the low hills and mountains.
In order to avoid colliding with Zheng Jinqing and Xiao Yanhan and causing unnecessary chaos, he did not launch an attack directly from the northwest. On the one hand, he separated dozens of cavalry to shoot at the enemy formation from the flank with bows and crossbows. On the other hand, he led the main cavalry to go around.
Zheng Jinqing's and Xiao Yanhan's troops regrouped on the southwest side of the charge array, with fifty people in a team, taking turns to attack the enemy's exposed oblique angles.
This is standard wheel tactics.
Each team of cavalry galloped forward in an isolated shape, then swept past the edge of the enemy formation and galloped into the distance, and finally circled back from the outside for the next round of impact. Although the time for each impact was very short, the engagement time was very short.
In this way, the enemy formation is continuously thinned and dispersed, which is extremely efficient and can keep casualties to a minimum until the enemy formation is completely destroyed.
On the north side, after Xu Huai and Wang Ju led the white-robed cavalry to kill through the enemy formation, they went to the battlefield to break away for a while. Yin Peng led 300 cavalry to directly cut into the already chaotic enemy formation in divisions, and went back and forth among the enemy formation.
Intersperse, stir, expand the chaos...
As the sun set in the west, Cao Shixiong felt like crying without tears when he saw thousands of infantrymen of the Qing Shun Army being completely mangled on the battlefield in the valley within a radius of six or seven miles. Thousands of corpses were lying on the ground and rivers of blood flowed.
"Come on!"
Several guards shouted.
Zhou Huan has been trapped in a tight siege. He doesn't know how many arrows have been inserted into his armor, and he is covered in blood. There are only a dozen soldiers around him struggling to support him. Now they only have the last two or three hundred infantry left under the river embankment that have not been killed and dispersed.
It was impossible to stop Chushan Cavalry from charging in the next round.
If they don't leave now, they may not have a chance to leave.
Several guards dragged and dragged Cao Shixiong toward the shallow water beach, waded into the east bank valley, and fled. The last remaining Qingshun army under the river embankment also collapsed, and they cried for their fathers and mothers and fled into the Fenshui River.
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The Fenshui River is not very deep after winter. You can cross it by flowing water in many places, and it is even easier to cross by horse.
However, the infantry were wearing heavy armor with cotton-padded clothes inside the armor. Two to three hundred people fought fiercely for two or three hours. At this time, they fell into the chest-deep icy river water. The little physical strength left was quickly drained.
When a person falls, a piece of him will be pulled down.
Countless defeated troops struggled in the cold river water, which to a certain extent prevented Chushan's cavalry from pursuing Cao Shixiong through the water.
The reason why the Qingshun Army has been able to hold on until now is not because of its strong fighting toughness, but more importantly because the valley terrain is too narrow, making it inconvenient to flee in any direction.
To the north is the tightly closed Lanzhou City, to the east is the Fenshui River, and to the west are the rolling low hills and mountains at the eastern foot of Guanxun Mountain. The south is the most open, but the most intercepting troops and horses are gathered in the south.
There was not much room around the battlefield for the Qingshun army to flee, and many people were forced to stay where they were and fight to the death.
Of course, the more important reason was that Xu Huai was sure of victory and there was really no need to bear additional casualties, so he deliberately slowed down the pace of the massacre.
Facing the Qingshun soldiers who gathered one after another, Xu Huai always directed his troops to go around and kill the chaotic defeated soldiers first, leaving the hard problems behind to clean up.
Of course, even though the four gates of Lanzhou City were closed, a large number of Qingshun soldiers fled to the city. Xu Huai would not force his troops to approach the city and strangle these soldiers against the city wall, shooting them with bows, crossbows and weapons.
Broken troops.
Meng Jian found hundreds of ropes and hung them under the city to help the defeated troops climb the city. This was something Xu Huai could not stop.
"How dare Cao Shixiong, the thief, escape!" Yin Penghan's shabby galloping horse returned to Xu Huai's side. He stopped on top of the hillock and looked at Cao Shixiong, surrounded by several riders, galloping up the east bank valley. He cried out with pity.
road.
"There will be a chance next time!" Xu Huai smiled faintly and ordered to gather his troops and prepare to cross the river.
Although apart from the broken soldiers under Lanzhou City who were difficult to approach and strangle, there were also many broken soldiers who fled along the north and south river valleys. At this time, it was no longer possible to take care of both.
Generals and soldiers need to seize all the time to rest and recuperate before heading to a new battlefield.
Wang Xian and Han Qi led their troops and horses to Huanglongpo, but they would not waste time chasing and defeating them on both wings.
They will cross the Fen River as soon as possible and rush to Heiyanyi to meet up with Xu Xin'an and Yang Qiye, and be ready to advance to Taiyuan overnight before dawn.
The pursuit of death and defeat will be left to the captured soldiers of Tianxiong Army and Zheng Jinqing's troops.
There are more than 80 miles of gorges from Baiyanyi Station to the former site of Tianmenguan. Although the weather has cleared up, the previous snow will not melt. After dark, the temperature is extremely cold, the roads are icy and slippery, and many gorges are on the verge of deep
The ditch is dangerous and it will be very difficult to travel at night.
However, the troops marched at night and rushed into the northern part of Taiyuan before dawn, which was most likely to leave Taiyuan's enemy defenseless.
Otherwise, the enemy should be alerted in advance and organize troops and horses to intercept them near Tianmen Pass. They would have to go through a hard battle before they could enter the area east of Luliang Mountain.
"I will go to Taiyuan with you!"
Xiao Yanhan, Chen Zixiao, Zheng Jinqing and other generals rushed to Pinggang on horseback. Xiao Yanhan, still wearing a ferocious and powerful Nuo god mask on his face, got off his horse and asked directly to lead a troop of troops to Taiyuan to join the battle.
The original plan was for the captured soldiers of Tianxiong Army and Zheng Jinqing's troops to stay in Lanzhou and deal with the Qing Shun Army, but they had never thought that they could so smoothly annihilate the main force of nearly 4,000 Qing Shun Army on the banks of the Fenshui River.
After this battle, even though the Qing Shun army still had more than ten thousand troops in Lanzhou, they were definitely frightened and would never have the courage to go out of the city to fight again.
There is no need for them to reserve so many troops at four nodes including Baiyanyi, Huanglongpo, Caochengzhai, and Taohuachongzhai.
Furthermore, no matter how much scruples Gu had, when he saw that Chu Shan's cavalry entered Lanzhou and won a great victory, killing Cao Shixiong and making him fall on his back, unable to resist, he should have sent some troops into Lanzhou to respond.
The Gu family has been loyal to Dai Viet and guarded Fuzhou for more than a hundred years. Although Fuzhou is poor and has a small population and cannot raise many men and horses, the Gu family has thousands of troops and horses that are quite capable of fighting.
The battle just now proved that the morale of the captured soldiers of Tianxiong Army was still quite usable in order to rush to the aid of Taiyuan.
Xiao Yanhan wanted to select hundreds of powerful Tianxiong troops to follow the Chushan Cavalry into Taiyuan to fight.
How weak the army and the people of Taiyuan are now, it is impossible to estimate yet. After the Chushan Cavalry enters Taiyuan, they will still need infantry to cooperate and participate in the battle...
