Li Daoxuan, the king of Huaiyang who was only 19 years old at that time, jumped on his horse and charged into the formation... No, in fact, Li Daoxuan had not broken the formation yet, and when he accelerated his horse to the sound of exciting drums, something had already appeared in the Tang army's formation behind them.
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Xue Zhong, the commander of the march, looked uneasily at the many generals who had gathered, and couldn't help but asked loudly: "Prince Yuan, the commander is rushing into the battle. The generals should return to their posts and the army should move forward."
This is for Shi Wanbao, and also for the generals. Shi Wanbao is the deputy commander, and the King of Huaiyang is the commander.
The commander risked his life and rushed into battle, but the deputy commander summoned the generals. Apparently something was wrong.
But Shi Wanbao didn't seem to hear it. He squinted at the charging Tang Army elite cavalry, as if trying to see clearly the young man at the front who had made him swallow his anger for a long time.
I have been holding this breath for several months, and finally it’s time to understand.
Amidst the surging drums, faint cheers came from the front. Everyone looked north. Everyone present had experienced the battle formation for a long time. Of course, they knew that this meant that the leader of the elite cavalry, King Huaiyang, had broken through the formation and entered.
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Shi Wanbao chuckled lightly, with a hint of disdain in his laughter, "The courage of an overlord is nothing more than killing himself in the Wujiang River."
"Prince Yuan, be the warlord and go forward!" Xue Zhong threw himself at Shi Wanbao's side, grabbed the opponent's sleeves, and shouted: "The Turks were scattered and unwilling to fight to the death. The commander broke into the formation and the infantry supplemented it.
If you do this, you will definitely win!"
The surrounding generals are quite ready to make a move. Now that the country has been mostly pacified, in the Central Plains and the north, Liu Heitai is the strongest among the few rebels still on the move.
There are not many opportunities for founding military merit, who doesn’t want it?
Shi Wanbao, who had always been shrinking, suddenly stood up on his horse, as if he had grown a little longer. He kicked Xue Zhong away, took out a folded silk silk from his arms with his right hand, and shouted: "Sage."
The edict is here!"
All the troops, shouting and neighing, suddenly heard this earth-shattering shout. It was so quiet that it seemed that even the sound of drums could not be heard.
"I have received an edict from the sage. Although Huaiyang's son is called the commander-in-chief, the advancement and stopping of the army are all entrusted to me!"
Xue Zhong, who was kicked away, fell into the ice cave and looked at Shi Wanbao in disbelief. He was ordered to stay behind in order to supervise Shi Wanbao to lead his troops forward. Unexpectedly, the other party actually took out the edict of the saint.
"No, no..."
Shi Wanbao's eyes were filled with pride and fierceness, but more importantly, he said with pleasure, "Don't believe it?"
"Is it because the edict of a saint cannot withstand the order of Tiance Mansion?"
"This is Hebei Road, not Shaanxi Road!"
There was silence for a while, and Shi Wanbao pointed his halberd to the north, "The Huaiyang boy is brave and brave, but he doesn't know the art of war, advance or retreat, and regards military and national affairs as child's play!"
Xue Zhong took a few deep breaths and said loudly: "May I ask the Duke of Yuan, when will you get the edict from the saint?!"
This is a key point that can easily be criticized. It has been two months since Shi Wanbao took office as the deputy general manager of the march in Hebei Province. Before that, he had been holding back and kept quiet. He even kept silent when his elite cavalry was removed by the King of Huaiyang.
It wasn't until King Huaiyang, who was the commander-in-chief of the march in Hebei Province, broke through the enemy's front line and was trapped in the enemy's formation that Shi Wanbao revealed his trump card... Obviously, this matter was not that simple.
Among the generals on the side, the knowledgeable ones had already thought that Shi Wanbao was a direct descendant of the East Palace, and Li Daoxuan had always been close to the King of Qin.
Those who are well-informed know that King Qin has been idle since he swept away the Central Plains. On this point, the saint and Donggong are on the same side.
"Original Duke." One of the generals raised his voice and asked: "Now that the King of Huaiyang is in battle, how will the war be handled today?"
Shi Wanbao stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Liu Heitai is known for his cunning. The Huaiyang boy is rash and hastily advanced. If we move forward in this matter, we will definitely be defeated."
"Now Huaiyang's son is trapped in the battle. When he is defeated and retreats, and the enemy's army pursues him southward, he only needs to stand firm and wait for it, and he will be defeated!"
Several members glanced at each other. Most of the army was now infantry. If the King of Huaiyang was defeated and the Turkic army pursued him south, could he be stopped?
But no one jumped out... Someone took out the sage's hand edict, which meant that they had raised the knife high. Who would take the initiative to put their neck up for Shi Wanbao to chop?
"Incredibly stupid!"
"Incredibly stupid!"
Xue Zhong, who yelled at Shi Wanbao at the top of his lungs, came from a well-known family, knew military strategy and the art of war.
His elder brother, Xue Shou, was a clerk in the palace of the Qin Dynasty and joined the army. He was proficient in the art of war. Last year, he raided the Central Plains.
Seeing the general return to his position and the King of Huaiyang trapped in the battle, Xue Zhong cried loudly in despair, "The Duke of Taiping County is used to defeating the enemy with cavalry and shooting, but now someone wants to defeat the cavalry with infantry!"
Shi Wanbao's expression was extremely ugly. This was Xue Zhong scolding himself for not knowing the art of war... The Duke of Taiping County was his brother Shi Wansui, who was recognized as the famous general who was the best at leading cavalry in the previous dynasty.
At this moment, the drumming had stopped early, and there were many commotions in the formation of more than 20,000 Tang troops, but they did not take a step forward.
Not only Li Daoxuan, who was trapped in the formation and fighting hard, discovered it, but also the thousands of Tang Qi.
Fear was spreading. Li Daoxuan looked from a distance and saw someone gesticulating on the hill. It must be Liu Heitai.
However, there were several square formations densely arranged under the hill, and there were large groups of cavalry on the left and right sides to protect them. It was impossible for Tang Qi, who had lost his speed, to rush through.
"Your Highness!" Liu Jun lost the horse's spear in his hand and was only wielding half of the gun shaft that he grabbed from somewhere. "Your Highness, retreat, retreat!"
"I regret not listening to the advice." Li Daoxuan's lower lip was bitten red, and Li Shan's earnest words that night flashed through his mind, including a detailed analysis and the last sentence, "There are shortcomings and strategies."
Although I don’t know what happened in the rear, I can be sure that it was Shi Wanbao, it was Shi Wanbao, it could only be Shi Wanbao!
Under such circumstances, how could Li Daoxuan dare to return to the formation? He would be defeated today, but if he broke his troops and broke his own formation, he could imagine what would happen after the war...
"You lead your troops to the east, rush out, bypass Xiabo and go south!"
"Go to Shenzhou... no, go to Weizhou!"
"Your Highness!" Liu Jun shouted twice hurriedly, but he saw Li Daoxuan shouting for his personal guards, forcibly speeding up, raising the horse's shaft high, gathering the remaining troops, and killing towards the west.
Liu Jun had no time to think about a cold arrow that suddenly flew towards him, so he could only turn back and head east, leading his few remaining troops to rush eastwards.
The fine cavalry of the Tang army suddenly split into two, one heading east and the other heading west. Liu Heitai on the hill could see it clearly.
"Which branch should we pursue?" The middle-aged general on the side said loudly: "Go west to Zhaozhou and Xingzhou, don't worry about it, chase the one going east?"
Liu Heitai smiled slightly and said, "There are still many brave men left to commend themselves for, so why choose one and give up the other?"
The middle-aged general grinned and pointed at the front battlefield.
"Damn it!" Liu Heitai couldn't help but cursed again.
Li Daoxuan charged into the formation bravely, and the Turkic cavalry scattered to avoid each other, but now the Tang army is fleeing... Liu Heitai was about to send an order for the Turkic soldiers to pursue the fleeing cavalry. The casualties of this task were small, and the Turks must be happy with it.
But in fact, the Turkic cavalry scattered on the battlefield went straight south under the command of the horn, and rushed directly to the Tang army's formation that was halting.
Liu Heita lamented, these Turks are really uncles.
If you want them to go east, they will go west.
If you want them to drive away dogs, they will drive away chickens.
The Turkic soldiers rushed straight into the formation, just for Liu Heita's previous promise to defeat the Tang army and leave Bo City to be dealt with by you and others.
Obviously, the Turks never wanted to see that by the time they returned from chasing the enemy cavalry, the city of Xiabo had already been captured.
After thinking about it, Liu Heita gritted his teeth and said nothing. Firstly, he didn't dare, and secondly... he was from Beizhou. Once Jizhou was defeated, if Xiabo City was not given to the Turks, there might be Turkic soldiers. Big plunder of Shell Island.
Although the Turks have been lured into Hebei, they can't let the Turks escape even Beizhou, right?
"Wang Xiaohu!" Liu Heitai cursed with a dark face, "Take all the cavalry and chase..."
"The one heading to the west." The middle-aged scribe on the side pointed to the west side, "Just now I saw the King of Huaiyang holding up the horse branch and heading west."
Watching the large group of cavalry chasing west, Liu Heitai looked at the front battlefield attentively. The five thousand Tang cavalry had been torn apart, some of them fled left and right with Li Daoxuan and Liu Jun, and the rest could only fight on their own.
But cavalry, especially cavalry used to rush into battle, lacks speed and can only be slaughtered by others.
Looking into the distance, the Turkic cavalry had quickly gathered, outflanking the tens of thousands of Tang army infantry from both sides who seemed to be planning to stay put.
With just one wave of arrows, the Tang army's position was already loosened. The commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief were at odds with each other. Thousands of fine cavalry were wiped out. The morale of the Tang army was greatly reduced. The army had no fighting spirit and no soldiers had the will to fight.
Faced with such an offensive by the Turks, Shi Wanbao, who tried to hold on, found in despair that even the personal guards around him showed signs of collapse.
Shi Wanbao thought that everything was planned, but in fact, Shi Wansui was a famous general and Shi Wanshou was also extraordinary. However, Shi Wanbao, the only one among the three brothers who had not served in the previous dynasty, did not have military talent.
Intrigue and shooting from behind may be useful in court, and can even help you gain power, but on the battlefield, these are the keys to defeat.
In less than a quarter of an hour, the seemingly huge Tang army formation disintegrated under the offensive of the Turks. Some fled backward, some gathered to fight for their lives, and some knelt down to beg for mercy.
Shi Wanbao, with less than a hundred personal guards, galloped southward on horseback. Behind him, the flag with the word "Shi" that had just been erected fell down.
The proud Liu Heitai descended the hill, rode forward, and said with a smile: "After this battle, we should return to Hebei."
The middle-aged scribe beside him is Fan Yuan, Liu Heita's first confidant. He pointed to the west and said, "He's back."
Liu Heitao turned around and saw hundreds of cavalry rolling in. The leader, Wang Xiaohu, was holding a horse spear and without dismounting, he kicked Tang Jiang off his horse who was tied to his side.
"King of Huaiyang."
They are all old people who have personally experienced the battle of Hulao Pass. Everyone recognizes Li Daoxuan, who was only nineteen years old and took the lead in breaking through the formation and raising the banner.
The commander-in-chief was captured alive, the deputy commander-in-chief was expelled, and the 30,000 elite Tang troops were almost wiped out except for a few hundred cavalry who fled to the east.
In other words, in the entire Hebei Province, except for the remaining troops from various states that had not yet fallen, the Tang army was powerless.
Li Daoxuan's impulsiveness and Shi Wanbao's stupidity caused the Tang army to lose almost all of its mobile power in Hebei Province.
After nearly a month of planning and forbearance, Liu Heitai achieved the goal of the battle perfectly and got almost everything he wanted to get.
Next, Liu Heitai only needs to defeat them one by one, and he will surely sweep Hebei in a short time.