Liu Xiu stayed in Chongling for one night and then stayed in the old house of Liu Liang's family. Early the next morning, Liu Xiu said goodbye to the villagers who came to see him off, took Fu An and others with him, left Chongling and returned to Duxiang.
When Deng sent the order to the surrounding counties of Caiyang to gather troops and horses, and jointly went to Chongling to arrest Liu Xiu, Liu Xiu had already left Chongling with his people for several days, and they were almost back to Duxiang.
Silent all the way, Liu Xiu successfully returned to the Han army's camp north of Duxiang. On the third day after Liu Xiu returned to the camp, the Han army sounded the clarion call to attack.
The 300,000 Han troops, with high morale and overwhelming morale, headed straight for Deng Fengjun's camp south of Duxiang.
Deng Feng acted extremely tough. He had no intention of avoiding the battle against the menacing 300,000 Han troops. He led his 150,000 troops out of the camp and formed a formation outside the camp, hoping to fight with the Han troops.
Fight to the death.
Our own force was twice that of Deng Fengjun, but instead of defending the camp, Deng Fengjun dared to go out to fight. Deng Feng's courage was really admirable.
Liu Xiu, who was sitting in the central army, raised his eyes and looked at Deng Fengjun opposite. Deng Fengjun's military appearance was not uniform, and the clothes of the soldiers were rather messy.
Especially the Hanzhong exile army led by Yancen and the Duxiang army led by Dong Xin did not have unified military uniforms at all. The officers and soldiers of the two armies wore everything.
However, the weapons were quite complete. The soldiers held a shield in one hand and a spear in the other, and the formation was quite neat.
Liu Xiu watched for a moment and said to his left and right: "Zi Yan leads the left front army, Jun Ran leads the right front army, and attacks the enemy's front army!"
Wu Han and Cen Peng stepped in and responded: "I obey your orders!"
Liu Xiu said: "Zhonghua led the right army and attacked the enemy's left army! Gongsun led the left army and attacked the enemy's right army!"
Deng Yu and Feng Yi stepped in and took the order: "Wei ministers obey your orders!"
Liu Xiu continued: "Bo Zhao leads our cavalry and is waiting for the opportunity to move. Wherever the enemy is strong, reinforcements will be sent to that side!"
Geng Yan stepped in and responded: "I obey your orders!"
At this time, the formation Liu Xiu put up was randomly placed according to the situation on the battlefield, and there was no specific formation name.
Because of the large number of troops on his side, Liu Xiu divided the front army into two groups, with Wu Han and Cen Peng each leading one group, and his own left and right wings divided into one group each, commanded by Deng Yu and Feng Yi.
In addition, he arranged for Geng Yan to command his own cavalry, forming a separate unit as a mobile force on the battlefield. Looking at the overall situation of Liu Xiu's formation, the Han army was like a big mouth, trying to kill Deng Fengjun on the opposite side.
Swallow it in one gulp.
The total strength of the front army on the left and right was 150,000, the troops on the left and right wings were 100,000, the cavalry commanded by Geng Yan was 30,000, and the central army where Liu Xiu was located had only 20,000 soldiers.
Liu Xiu put all his combatable troops into the front, hoping to capture Deng Fengjun on the frontal battlefield in one go.
The Han army took the lead in beating drums and marching.
The former soldiers, led by Wu Han and Cen Peng, marched forward with a uniform pace.
There is no need to fight, just hearing the deafening sound of marching and feeling the shaking of the ground is enough to frighten people.
Looking at the oncoming Han army, Yancen and Dong Xin's hearts were in their throats. They couldn't help but look at Deng Feng and said: "General Deng, the enemy army is coming fiercely. There are many soldiers and generals. This battle will be difficult."
, I’m afraid it will be difficult for our army to compete head-on with the enemy!”
Deng Feng narrowed his eyes and said in a shocked voice: "Our army has no way to avoid this battle. If we can't fight, we must fight! As long as we can withstand the enemy's army for a while, when our reinforcements arrive, we will definitely be able to defeat them. Enemy troops, capture Liu Xiu alive!"
Reinforcements? Where did the reinforcements come from?
When Yan Cen and Dong Xin heard this, they felt quite baffled. Their own troops were all here. How could there be any reinforcements? When they thought about it, their hearts suddenly moved. Could it be that the coward Qin Feng would send troops to help?
If this is the case, then our side really has a fighting chance in this battle! Although Qin Feng is as timid as a mouse, the soldiers under Qin Feng are still good. The veterans of Nanjun are quite good at fighting and have a large number of troops.
As long as Qin Feng's army can arrive in time when the fierce battle between his own side and the enemy is in full swing, he will surely be able to catch the enemy by surprise.
Both of them believed that the reinforcements Deng Feng mentioned were Qin Feng's army. Then, they both stopped asking questions and looked up at the battlefield ahead.
On Deng Fengjun's side, Deng Feng's soldiers were the main force in the center, Yancen's army was on the left, and Dong Xin's army was on the right. The soldiers of both sides advanced in retrograde and launched a large-scale head-on duel on the plains outside Duxiang. .
In this battle, the Han army invested 300,000 troops, and the Deng-Feng coalition invested 150,000 troops. A total of 450,000 troops from both sides fought. This was an unprecedented scale in the history of Nanyang.
When the soldiers on both sides advanced within the shooting range of the archers, the two armies' camps fired arrow arrays almost at the same time. Buzz, buzz, long dark clouds rose into the sky on both sides, roaring and smashing towards the opposite camp.
Click, click, click! The soldiers raised their wooden shields one after another, forming a huge shield formation. Doo, doo, doo, doo! After the arrow formation fell down, there was a sound of arrows nailing the shield formation. Everlasting.
After a round of arrow formation, the soldiers lowered their raised wooden shields one after another, pulled out the arrows nailed to them, and threw them to the ground beside them.
Among the crowd, there were short and thin soldiers walking back and forth, quickly picking up arrows on the ground, and every time they collected fifty, they tied them into a bundle with a rope, transported them to the rear, and gave them to their own archers for further use.
The soldiers on both sides continued to advance against the arrow arrays from the opposite side. Soon, the soldiers in the front row came into contact. The sound of the collision of shields and shields instantly became loud and rumbling. .
The soldiers in the front used all their strength to push forward with their shields, while the soldiers in the back held halberds and spears and stabbed at the enemy on the opposite side.
From time to time, some of the shield soldiers, halberdiers, and spear soldiers in the front row were hit, screaming and falling in a pool of blood.
In a head-to-head confrontation involving hundreds of thousands of people, it is impossible to decide the winner in a split second.
At the beginning of the battle, the soldiers on both sides were full of vigor and pushed towards the opposite side with all their strength, charging and killing each other. The battle was also extremely fierce.
When both sides have exhausted their energy, the ensuing battle will enter a stalemate stage.
At this time, the battlefield was already covered with corpses and rivers of blood. The soldiers in front were all exhausted, but they could not retreat from the battlefield, so they could only grit their teeth and hold on for dear life.
The fighting between the two sides lasted from morning to noon, and from noon to the afternoon. The battle lasted for such a long time, and both the Han army and Deng Fengjun suffered extremely heavy casualties.
Relatively speaking, the Han army had a large number of troops and could withstand such high casualties, but Deng Feng's army, which had fewer troops, began to show signs of failure.
Yancen and Dong Xin were so anxious that sweat broke out on their foreheads. They looked around from time to time, hoping to see reinforcements. However, every time they looked, they were disappointed. The surroundings were empty and there was no sign of reinforcements at all.
Dong Xin was the first to lose his composure and urged his horse to approach Deng Feng. He raised his hands and asked, "General Deng, where are our reinforcements? If the reinforcements do not come, our soldiers will be completely wiped out!"
At this time, Deng Feng's face was also extremely solemn. He waved slightly to Dong Xin and Yancen and said: "General Dong, General Yan, please be patient. From what I can infer, our reinforcements are coming soon!"
Yancen and Dong Xin looked at Deng Feng with strange expressions. Now they both doubted whether they had the reinforcements Deng Feng mentioned.
Before the two of them could ask any more questions, suddenly, they saw an army rushing out of Duxiang. This army went straight towards the central army of the Han army.
Seeing this, both Yancen and Dong Xin were stunned. They looked at the soldiers and horses that came out of Duxiang with dumbfounded eyes, and they couldn't react for a while.
During this period, Deng Feng had been recruiting soldiers and horses from Nanyang counties, and county soldiers from Nanyang counties were also continuously sent to Duxiang.
However, Deng Feng transferred so many county soldiers, but the strength of Deng Feng's army did not increase significantly. So where were all the county soldiers who came to help?
The county soldiers who came for reinforcements were all incorporated into Deng Feng's army. At the same time, Deng Feng drew out 20,000 elite troops under his command and quietly deployed them in Duxiang.
He buried 20,000 elite soldiers in Duxiang, hoping that when the soldiers from both sides were fighting to the point of indistinguishability on the main battlefield, the 20,000 elite soldiers could take the opportunity to sneak attack on the central army of the Han army.
Taking Liu Xiu by surprise and attacking him unprepared, whether he can capture Liu Xiu or not, is enough to throw the enemy's central army into chaos. As long as the central army is in chaos, the front army will be in chaos. In this way, our own opportunity will appear to turn defeat into victory.
This was the tactic adopted by Deng Feng.
Deng Feng's move was quite unexpected. At least among the generals of the Han army, no one could have expected that Deng Feng had hidden 20,000 elite men in Duxiang.
The 20,000 officers and soldiers of Deng Fengjun rushed out of Duxiang and headed straight for the central army of the Han army.
Liu Xiu, who was sitting in the central army, was startled. He turned to look at the 20,000 Deng Fengjun who were swarming towards him. He frowned slightly and said calmly: "Deng Feng is still a little clever."
He knew that in a head-on confrontation, he could not be his opponent, so he hid 20,000 ambushes in Duxiang and planned to sneak attack on his own central army. The Han soldiers around Liu Xiu had solemn expressions and said nervously: "Your Majesty , the enemy army actually set up an ambush in Duxiang, we... we'd better retreat first!"
Liu Xiu glanced at everyone and said in a deep voice: "The two armies are fighting fiercely. How can we retreat if we want to?" As he spoke, he turned his head and said: "Long Yuan!"
"My subordinate is here!" Long Yuan stepped in and saluted.
"You go inform the officers and soldiers in the front army that the enemy is coming from the rear, and I will deal with it myself, so that they don't have to worry, worry about the rear, and concentrate on defeating the enemy in the front!" Liu Xiu said decisively.
Long Yuan responded urgently and rode away.
After Long Yuan left, Liu Xiu shouted in a loud voice: "All officers and men of the Han army, please follow me to defeat the enemy!" As he spoke, he clamped his legs on the belly of the war horse. The horse was in pain and raised its two front hooves high. Almost standing upright on the ground.
The war horse neighed several times, and after its front hooves hit the ground, it opened its four hooves and ran straight towards the swarming enemy troops on the opposite side.
As soon as Liu Xiu moved, the surrounding soldiers also started to move. People beat their horses one by one and followed Liu Xiu to kill the enemy.
The first person to rush towards Liu Xiu was a military general from Deng Fengjun. He held a Yanyue long sword, pointed it at Liu Xiu's head, and swept over with his sword.
Liu Xiu lowered his head forward, and wow, the blade passed over his head. When the two horses were crossing each other, the enemy general wanted to raise his sword to strike again. Liu Xiu unsheathed his Scarlet Sky Sword and swung it horizontally, slashing towards him.
The other person's neck.
The general hurriedly put away his sword to block, but Liu Xiu's swing of the sword was just a feint. After the opponent made a gesture of blocking, he suddenly changed his move and turned his slash into a stab.
A popping sound was heard in the helix of the ear. The Chixiao Sword penetrated the enemy general's right neck and came out on the left side of his neck. With one stroke of the sword, it stabbed two bloody holes on the left and right sides of the enemy's neck. The enemy general's voice
Without saying a word, he fell down from his horse.
Liu Xiu did not pause for a moment, and continued to charge forward with his horse, holding his sword to face the remaining enemy troops.