Pang De and Chu Yan waited patiently in the cave dwelling and dug a small hole in the snow blocking the entrance of the cave to facilitate observation of the situation outside.
Not long after, the Wei army drove into the mountain road. At the front was a man with a silver helmet on his head, wearing a chain mail, carrying a big sword, and under his crotch was a yellow-maned horse. Behind him, a thousand infantrymen followed closely, with flag bearers behind them.
One big flag has the word "Xiahou" embroidered on it, and the other flag has the word "Wei" embroidered on it.
Pang De and Chu Yan saw this wave of soldiers and horses at the same time. Looking from a distance, there was no doubt that the leader and Xia Houyuan were wearing the same clothes.
Chu Yan was extremely excited. She was about to rush out with the steel knife in her hand, but was held back by Pang De.
"Ling Ming, what are you doing?" Chu Yan asked suspiciously.
Pang De said: "Xiahou Yuan sent five thousand troops, why did he only bring one thousand infantry in front? Is there some conspiracy? Let's wait and see!"
Chu Yan said: "Whatever the conspiracy is, our army is ten thousand, and our strength is twice that of Xia Houyuan. What are you afraid of? If we don't kill Xia Houyuan now, I'm afraid if we let him pass, Ma Chao will take action."
As soon as he finished speaking, Chu Yan immediately threw Pang De away, shouted and rushed out directly.
Pang De had no choice but to rush out. The Chinese troops who were ambushing the cave dwellings on both sides were dispatched. They raised their crossbows and fired fiercely into the mountain road.
Under the volley of thousands of arrows, all the thousands of Wei soldiers were shot to death, and no one survived. Blood flowed all over the ground, dyeing the surrounding snow red.
At this time, all the Chinese soldiers cheered, thinking that they had killed Xia Houyuan. Chu Yan even hurriedly went down the hillside, pulled out the steel knife and walked to "Xia Houyuan" in the mountain road, pulled up Xia Houyuan's hair, and was about to lift
The knife cut off the head.
Unexpectedly, an arrow suddenly shot out and flew towards Chu Yan quickly.
"Be careful of hidden arrows!" Pang De shouted hurriedly when he saw this.
Chu Yan was startled and hurriedly dodged, but the arrow still passed by his nose. The sharp arrow scratched Chu Yan's nose, causing Chu Yan to bleed immediately and hurriedly covered his nose with his hands. At the same time, Chu Yan hurriedly covered his nose with his hands.
, the dead "Xia Houyuan" suddenly attacked Chu Yan, pulled out a dagger and stabbed Chu Yan in the thigh.
Chu Yan felt a sharp pain in his legs and became unsteady. He stumbled and fell backwards.
Immediately afterwards, the man pretending to be Xia Houyuan did not hesitate at all. He took out his flying knife and rushed directly towards Chu Yan, intending to stab Chu Yan to death.
Seeing that the person was not Xia Houyuan, Chu Yan knew that he had been fooled. He raised his foot and kicked out towards the person. He just stood up with pain and was about to kill the person pretending to be Xia Houyuan. Unexpectedly, an arrow flew towards him.
It shot directly into his forehead. The huge force directly penetrated his skull, entered his head, and came out from behind the helmet. There was white brain matter on the arrow.
"Ah——" Chu Yan screamed, stepped back a few steps, fell in the snow, twitched a few times, and died.
This momentary change happened so fast that Chu Yan was shot dead before Pang De and other Chinese troops could react.
"General Chu!"
Pang De shouted and was about to go down the hillside when he saw six to seven hundred dead people in the snow standing up at the same time. Everyone pulled out a throwing knife from their waist and pointed towards the people on the hillside.
The Chinese army officers and soldiers threw it over.
The flying knife left his hand without missing a beat, and went straight into the soldier's throat with extreme accuracy.
At this time, many Wei troops suddenly rushed out from behind the Huaxia Army, waving their swords and slashing and killing them. The Huaxia Army was caught off guard and hurriedly turned around to defend themselves.
At this time, Xia Houyuan rushed over from the mountain road with 500 cavalry. Each knight started shooting at the Chinese army on the hillside with their bows and arrows. With the armor-piercing awl in hand and the sudden attack, the Chinese army was caught off guard.
.
The situation got out of control for a time. The armor and weapons that the Chinese army was proud of were useless against the Wei army. Pound saw the loss of his troops and lost his generals. He heard constant shouts of killing from behind. The flags of the Wei army were flying all over the mountains and fields. He didn't know where to come.
They gathered many soldiers and horses, rushed down the hillside, chopped down the man pretending to be Xia Houyuan, put the dead Chu Yan on his shoulders, and shouted: "The whole army retreats!"
The Chinese troops retreated one after another, in groups of three and five, and in groups of four and six, and finally moved closer to the center and became in unison. A thousand people stayed behind and fought and retreated, which seemed to be well-trained.
Xia Houyuan was about to pursue him, but when he saw Xu Shu arriving, he hurriedly shouted: "Don't chase the poor enemy!"
"Why?" Xia Houyuan asked suspiciously, "If you don't kill the general at this time, when will you wait?"
"Pang De still has fighting strength. When he retreated, the army was extremely organized. It can be seen that this army is usually well-trained, but he retreated just because he defeated Chu Yan. Doesn't the general feel suspicious? Besides, our army is small and the enemy's soldiers are small.
There are too many, so it’s not appropriate to pursue them.” Xu Shu hurriedly consoled him, “Now, we should be able to return to Jicheng.”
"The Chinese army is clearly afraid of me. If we don't pursue it now and expand our victory, how long will it take?"
As soon as Xia Houyuan finished speaking, he ordered: "Pursue the whole army, kill the enemy general, and reward him with a thousand gold coins."
"General Xiahou..." Xu Shu shouted hurriedly.
Xia Houyuan was not willing to listen. He led five hundred cavalrymen and galloped over first. The infantry in front cleared the way, and more than four thousand people chased Pound in a mighty manner.
Xu Shu was frightened, and saw that he and the two guards behind him were left alone for a moment. He sighed: "Xiahou is a talented person, I think Xiahou is a fool!"
"Sir, what should we do now?" the guard behind asked.
Xu Shu said angrily: "What else can be done? If Xia Houyuan makes a mistake, Liangzhou will be completely occupied by the Chinese army and they will catch up..."
"Look, sir! It's reinforcements!" the soldier pointed at a large army that suddenly appeared behind him and shouted loudly.
"Reinforcements?" Xu Shu turned around and looked over, but when he saw Cao Xiu leading the way, leading a large army at a mighty gallop, he felt even more frightened and uncertain, and hurriedly galloped towards Cao Xiu.
Just now, Xu Shu had used a trick to trick Pang De into thinking that there were many Wei troops. But now reinforcements really came, and he was extremely worried.
When they met, Cao Xiu saw Xu Shu arriving. Without waiting for Cao Xiu to say anything, Xu Shu shouted and asked: "Cao Wenlie, who told you to send troops without permission? Go back quickly!"
Cao Xiu hurriedly reined in his horse and asked suspiciously: "Military advisor, didn't you send an order to Jicheng to ask Master Cheng to defend the city, and to lay out a suspicious plan, so that I could lead all the troops in the city to come to support?"
"Nonsense! When did I give you the order?" Xu Shu said angrily.
Cao Xiu said: "Military advisor, you sent someone to inform us that the Chinese Army's 50,000-strong army has surrounded you and asked me to come to support..."
"What's wrong, you have fallen into the enemy's trick of diverting the tiger away from the mountain! Go back quickly, the city of Hebei is empty, and I'm afraid only 500 Chinese troops can capture the city." Xu Shu immediately shouted nervously, "There are senior officials in the Chinese army.
I underestimated the Chinese army!"
Cao Xiu said: "Don't worry, military advisor, the city will not be captured so easily. The Qiang people have already entered the city with 20,000 troops and horses...
After hearing this, Xu Shu's face immediately changed color, and he immediately turned around and said to his soldiers: "Hurry up and chase General Xiahou. You must let Xiahou Yuan withdraw his troops, otherwise Liangzhou will be completely unprotected!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Shu hurriedly said to Cao Xiu: "Cao Wenlie, you are confused, how could the Qiang people come so quickly? Something must have happened in Jicheng now. The army is on standby, with the front team changing to the rear team, waiting for General Xia Houyuan to arrive.
Withdraw your troops immediately, maybe it's still too late!"
Cao Xiu frowned, and after hearing what Xu Shu said, he felt even more uneasy.
At this time, Xiahou Yuan pursued Pang De. Pang De and others were fighting and retreating. Seeing Xia Houyuan chasing him, there were only about four to five thousand men, and he immediately ordered: "Stop the whole army and form a formation!"
After giving an order, Pang De handed Chu Yan's body to his soldiers and asked them to retreat back with Chu Yan's body. He also tried to contact Ma Chao and asked Ma Chao to quickly send troops to attack and surround Xia Houyuan.
The soldiers of the Chinese Army all formed infantry square formations, with shields in front, long gunners mounting their spears on shields, archers at the back, and crossbowmen scattered on both wings. On this relatively flat snow ground, they immediately displayed
A solid defensive formation.
"Fire arrows!" Pound gave the order, and his men began to counterattack, firing their bows and crossbows at the advancing Wei army.
Xia Houyuan and his men were all surprised. They did not expect that the retreating Chinese army could form such a tight formation. However, Xia Houyuan had no intention of retreating. He rode forward and shot a penetrating cone at the enemy.
military.
Xia Houyuan had been skilled in bow and horse since he was a child, and had the skill of piercing a Yang with a hundred steps, so he shot an arrow directly through the head of a man. When he saw that the enemy was approaching, he abandoned his bow and changed his sword, clapped his horse and danced his sword, and happened to step forward.
, but saw a cavalry group coming quickly from behind Pang De's army. The leader wore a silver helmet on his head, wore bright silver armor, and a lion belt around his waist. He had a Dihuo Xuanlu spear in his hand and a lion crotch under his crotch, making him look majestic.
As soon as he saw the man appear, he immediately recognized him, turned his horse's head immediately, and shouted: "Retreat!"
Pang De heard the sound of horse hooves behind him and turned around to see Ma Chao leading Wang Shuang and five thousand cavalry in a mighty manner, galloping along the road they had already cleared. When he saw Xia Houyuan retreating without a fight, he hurriedly ordered:
: "The whole army gets out of the way, let the general pass by!"
Ma Chao took Wang Shuang with him without stopping at all. After glancing at the dead Chu Yan, he frowned. He also saw that Pang De's men had some casualties, and they were all infantry. When they passed by Pang De,
Then he shouted loudly: "General Pang, leave the rest to Ma!"
Youdao was extremely jealous when his enemies met. When Ma Chao saw Xia Houyuan, he was like a cat seeing a mouse.
Five thousand cavalry.
Xia Houyuan knew how powerful Ma Chao was, so when he saw Ma Chao coming with his cavalry brigade, he immediately retreated, looking back from time to time for fear of being overtaken by Ma Chao. It was not because he was afraid of Ma Chao, but because he had few soldiers and was afraid of Ma Chao and Pound's army.
If they were all pressed up, he would have no way to retreat.