The southwest wind was blowing hard, and amid the flying snow, more than a dozen ships that appeared on the Yongji Canal burst into flames without warning, and moved down the river as fast as a galloping horse.
Liu Heitai, who was in the rear line suppressing the soldiers, almost spat out a mouthful of blood. The scene of yesterday's defeat appeared in front of his eyes again, and it seemed exactly the same as yesterday.
Are they really the same?
Liu Heitao stared at the ship speeding past not far away with splitting eyes... There was also a big flag with Liu characters on it!
Now Liu Heitai can be sure that the grain transport ship that was burned down on the Yongji Canal near Wei County yesterday... was basically a cover-up trick by the Tang army.
My own deception method failed to frighten my opponent, but the opponent's deception method made me completely defeated... In fact, it can't be called a deception method. The other party obviously saw through everything and it was a conspiracy.
And what appears in front of you now is the props you used to perform tricks... but they have obviously been used by Tang Jun.
I hunted geese all day long, but unexpectedly I got pecked in the eye by the geese!
There was only a slight commotion among the more than two thousand soldiers at first, and some even shouted for peace. Some people had already seen the big flag with the character Liu on the ship.
But then, the raging fire turned the ship into a fire ship, breaking out of the wind and snow. The fire took advantage of the wind and slammed into the simple bridge that was still under construction.
Some fireboats crashed into bridges and continued to sail downstream. Some fireboats crashed onto bridge piers, knocking dozens of soldiers and falling into the Yongji Canal.
The two most successful fireships, because they had no helmsman to direct them, hit the bridge diagonally sideways. A strong southwest wind blew, and the fire immediately enveloped the bridge.
Looking at this scene in stunned silence, thousands of soldiers beside the Yongji Canal burst into desperate roars after a brief silence.
Before they could regain their senses, there was a loud sound of horse hooves, and in the snowy sky, Li Daoxuan, who was wearing Mingguang armor and holding a horse spear, was the first to break the formation, followed by more than a thousand cavalrymen with swords and guns.
There was no suspense. The enemy's front line was shattered in an instant. They didn't even have time to release a wave of arrows. The soldiers just fled to the two wings.
Li Daoxuan, who was fully prepared to be pricked into a hedgehog shape again... The biggest crisis now is that he accelerated his horse and tried to break the formation in one fell swoop. If he hadn't reacted quickly, he would have almost fallen into the Yongji Canal!
And Liu Heitao... the moment the ship was ignited, he noticed that Tang Qi, two miles away, began to accelerate into the formation.
Therefore, Liu Heitai abandoned his infantry without hesitation and led hundreds of cavalry to flee north.
But it's a pity, as the saying goes, you can still live if you do evil by God, but you can't live if you do evil by yourself!
With his back to the Yongji Canal to break the formation, Liu Heitai put up a formation with infantry in front and cavalry at the back. He tried to resist the impact of the Tang army's cavalry with a dense front formation of infantry, and then used his cavalry to break through the enemy.
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It was a good idea...but when he tried to escape, a large number of infantry blocked Liu Heita's way of escaping north.
As expected, Liu Heitai stabbed the soldiers blocking the road with his horse sword repeatedly, and the cavalry behind him followed suit, slashing at the soldiers who were just comrades with their swords and spears.
Although they have been defeated without any suspense, Liu Heitai's lineup has not completely collapsed, and Liu Heitai's move... at least the left side has completely collapsed.
Those infantry who were lucky enough to flee to the east, those who were unlucky to be knocked away by the cavalry, and those who were forced to flee to the west... had no choice but to fall into the Yongji Canal.
Winter swimming is also common, but now it’s snowing heavily!
Xue Zhong held a long knife and chopped Cao Zhan off his horse with a sharp sword. From the corner of his eye, he saw a white horse galloping north, and immediately shouted at the top of his lungs: "Your Highness, Your Highness!"
Li Daoxuan's original war horse was gone long ago. After being exchanged back to Guantao City, he has been using Li Shan's white horse.
Li Daoxuan angrily glanced at the hundreds of cavalry led by Liu Heitai who had fled north. He reined in his horse and turned around, shouting loudly to gather his cavalry. The enemy's right formation had not yet collapsed, and there were even hundreds of cavalry on the left.
Clash to the right.
To Li Daoxuan's surprise, Cheng Mingzhen, the general manager of Weizhou, did not pursue Liu Heitai. It was Wang Junkuo who led his cavalry in pursuit north.
Li Dao
"Su Dingfang!" Li Daoxuan shouted, "They are all assigned by you!"
In this pursuit, Wang Junkuo and Cheng Mingzhen each led five to six hundred cavalry, which was difficult for Su Dingfang to command. However, the hundreds of cavalry led by Li Daoxuan and Xue Zhong were all familiar with Su Dingfang and followed him to defeat the enemy twice outside Guantao City.
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On the battlefield, there was no need to hesitate. Su Dingfang had already made a plan and gave a loud command, asking Li Daoxuan and Xue Zhong to lead two hundred cavalry to charge forward. He and Liu Jun led the remaining one hundred cavalry to bypass to the south and along the Yongji Canal.
A sudden side attack.
Su Dingfang rushed into the enemy formation with his horse in hand, but there was no enemy in front of his horse. After advancing for dozens of steps, he suddenly reined in his horse and headed south, changed direction and charged again.
The infantry in front of them ran backwards reflexively like headless flies, messing up the cavalry array behind them. A large number of infantry and cavalry fell together into the Yongji Canal.
Cheng Minzhen had already put enough pressure on the remnants of the army, but this was the last straw, and the two to three hundred cavalrymen collapsed immediately.
The most important thing is that Su Dingfang gathered the cavalry and deliberately exposed the escape route on the north side.
Su Dingfang skillfully and freely commanded several cavalry squads to attack from various angles in turn, driving the enemy troops north and west in large numbers. In the end, only more than a hundred enemy cavalry were left to flee north.
After wiping the blood on his hands, Cheng Mingzhen took a deep look at Su Dingfang. He knew this person... but judging from today's battle situation, King Xia was unpopular.
He is skilled and talented in commanding cavalry battles, and his own martial arts are unrivaled. That's all. He is at most a cavalry commander and a fighting general.
However, deliberately exposing a way out to the north and breaking the morale of the remnant army can be regarded as the use of the tactic of surrounding three enemies and one, which shows that Su Dingfang's future is limitless.
The wind and snow were getting heavier and heavier, and the fire boat on the Yongji Canal had been extinguished and sunk, but the fire on the bridge was getting bigger and bigger, blazing across the river like a fiery snake.
A few hours later, the fighting had ceased, and the Yongji County magistrate came with civilians to clean the battlefield and search for the wounded.
Xue Zhong had been in the army for many years and had followed Li Shimin on the battlefield since the First Battle of Qianshuiyuan. He found a piece of high ground to briefly view the battlefield and make some rough calculations.
"The scouts reported before the war that the enemy had about two thousand infantry and seven or eight hundred cavalry." Xue Zhong smiled and said: "The two groups that fled north had at most more than two hundred cavalry and infantry... In such weather, there is no way to escape.
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"At least a thousand enemy soldiers fell into the Yongji Canal, and there were hundreds of ownerless horses..."
Xue Zhong grabbed a handful of snow and wiped the blood on the long knife, "Now we have to see if Liu Heitai can be captured and killed!"
Seeing Li Daoxuan cast an anxious gaze to the north, Su Dingfang advised: "It is difficult for Liu Heitai to recover from this defeat. When word of the war in Wei County spreads, the Tang army left behind in Xiangzhou and Weizhou will inevitably move north, and Luozhou should be conquered without a fight."
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"Even if Liu Heitai led his troops to flee north, it would be difficult for him to borrow troops from the Turkic Khan to go south."
"Wang Junkuo was smart enough to pursue him first." Li Daoxuan nodded slightly and snorted, "Although Cheng Mingzhen was eager for revenge, he still stayed behind until the victory was confirmed before pursuing him again."
Before he finished speaking, several horses came galloping from the north, and the leader turned out to be Yuchi Baolin.
Li Daoxuan was greatly surprised. When did this guy chase north?
Su Dingfang also had a big problem. He knew that Yuchi Baolin's father, Yuchi Gong, was the beloved general of the King of Qin and had saved his life many times. Although he and Li Shan had some differences, they were good friends. He should follow Li Daoxuan in this pursuit with the army. He didn't know why.
It's time to go north.
"Your Highness, capture Liu Heita alive!"
"Capture Liu Heita alive!"
Everyone heaved a long sigh of relief. Although Liu Heitai might not be able to make a comeback even if he escaped, this kind of thing is difficult to confirm.
Now that Liu Heitai has been captured alive, this means that the war in Hebei and Shandong that lasted for a year and a half from June of the fourth year of Wude to the present has finally come to an end, and the fallen states of Shandong will once again become Tang Dynasties.