On the snow ground trampled by horse hooves, blood dripped.
The collapse of the five thousand men was actually just an instant. They were already being killed on the front and were retreating steadily. On the flanks and behind, they were attacked by light and heavy cavalry in turns. If they did not collapse, the Youguo Army would be selected by Zhu Quanzhong as his own army.
Wang Chong turned over and dismounted, walked up to Cai Songyang who had another wound on his body, and said in admiration: "Now that you know how brave General Cai is, are you still chasing after him?"
"Of course I have to chase him!" Cai Songyang said without hesitation.
This place is one mile southwest of Lindu Yi. After Lindu Yi, five or six miles to the east is Luoyang. About seven or eight miles to the south is the place where Changzhi Army camped last night.
The army was fighting here just now, drums and horns were shouting, and the south might have heard it.
The Heluo Basin is really too small, long from east to west and narrow from north to south.
Luoyang goes north to Baisima Ban, thirty miles away. It only takes one day to walk quickly. The Tianxiong Army had arrived in Luoyang last night. They had rested and collected water. They crossed Luoyang and pursued southward.
The distance from Luoyang to Yique Pass in the south is actually only a little over twenty miles. Under normal circumstances, it would take a day's march with the baggage.
To the east of Luoyang, it is more than twenty miles to the ancient city and thirty miles to Shiqiaodian, which is also within a day's journey. The Tiande Army Yang Sheng's Department will be less than five miles away from the upper east gate of Luoyang and has already turned south to pursue
Long straight army.
All the ministries were actually about half a day's journey away from the Changzhi Army, and the Tianxiong Army was even less than half a day's journey away. At this time, they all received the news and rushed on their way frantically, making sure to leave this army behind.
Well, Marshal Shao, who was on the way, also received the news. He hugged the young and innocent Webster with one hand, and wrote a sentence with a pen in his hand: "Kill the 1st Marine Division!" and then burned it...
Zhu Youning was tied up and brought to Cai Songyang.
Cai Songyang laughed loudly, drew out his dagger and put it against his chin, saying: "Envoy Zhu Zhen, five thousand men and horses, how about being wiped out in one battle?"
"What's there to say to Shao Shude's lackey? If you want to kill or behead him, it's up to you." Zhu Youning snorted coldly and said.
Cai Songyang was once Shao Shude's personal soldier, so he was naturally his confidant. It was normal for Zhu Youning to scold him like this.
"Haha! The defeated general." Cai Songyang took back his dagger and said with a smile, "Go and capture Kou Yanqing and let him be your companion."
After saying that, he waved his big hand and said: "Take the prisoners and send them back, and you guys will follow me south to kill the thieves!"
The waving movement was too big and affected the wound, but Cai Songyang felt more and more happy.
Killing is addictive. He felt that he could no longer suppress his murderous emotions and needed to vent his anger.
Ma Sixun was called over and asked to take nearly 3,000 prisoners back to Luoyang so that he would not have to participate in the following battle.
Just now, he charged forward with his naked body exposed and was very brave. Cai Songyang's impression of him changed a little, and his attitude became much better now.
"Follow your orders!" After witnessing the glorious achievements of the Xia Army's combined forces and defeating Zhu Youning's troops in one battle, Ma Sixun was now very honest and did not dare to have any second thoughts.
Zhu Youning was defeated, Huo Cun was besieged, Xu Huaiyu was unable to hear from him, and things like Heluo didn't look good.
Now there is only one Kou Yanqing left. Well, Hu Zhen and Marshal Hu are also with him, but he looks like a foil. A phoenix with its hair off is not as good as a chicken. What is the difference between a warlord and a civil servant without soldiers? I'm afraid it will be even worse.
After a short rest, the wounded and prisoners were evacuated, and the captured baggage and equipment were also taken back.
Cai Songyang took more than 3,000 people and embarked on the journey south again.
As for the Dingyuan Army's 1,000 cavalry and the 1,400 leopard cavalry, they were one step ahead of them. The distance was less than ten miles, and for them, the cavalry could be reached in a matter of seconds.
…
On the snowy plains south of Luoyang, the rangers went around calling for friends, gathering almost all the cavalrymen.
There used to be 1,000 Tiande Army cavalry, 600 Xiebin cavalry, and 2,000 Guanbei Fan cavalry on the road to Fu Cunchen. Now, except for the 600 people from the Baoyi Army, all the rest are gathered here.
After collecting the soil, Sergeant Chang Zhi pulled the carriage to the trench and slowly filled it in.
During the process of filling the trenches, large groups of infantry came forward and lined up with guns to prevent the cavalry from approaching and harassing them.
The trench was not too wide, and it did not take too long to fill it. From cutting down trees, warming the fire, digging, loading soil, transporting and filling the trench, more than a thousand people went into battle together, and it was completed in about an hour or two.
But after filling one trench, another trench three or four miles away was dug. Xia Jun was disgusted and loaded the excavated soil away in a truck, preventing Liang Bing from using it nearby. He forced them to continue to spend time logging and making wood.
Firewood, warm the fire and then dig the soil.
And in the process, they were still harassed, trying every means to reduce the efficiency of Liang people and delay the time for them to complete their work.
Not surprisingly, this crazy harassment also paid a huge price: from yesterday afternoon to now, three to four hundred cavalry have been lost. Most of them were killed by Liang soldiers' crossbows, and a few were killed by dismounted infantry battles.
.
The dull sound of horse hoofs sounded, and the German cavalry divided into three waves for nearly a thousand days, rushing in from south to north like waves.
After walking all morning, he calculated carefully that he had only gone five miles south.
Counting the distance traveled yesterday, we are still ten miles away from Yique Pass!
Yesterday afternoon plus this morning, it took almost a whole day to walk ten miles! What kind of speed is this?
Generally speaking, the fewer people there are, the faster you walk, and the more people you have, the slower you walk. If you are carrying a heavy vehicle, the speed will be even slower. But no matter how slow you are, you can still walk twenty or thirty miles a day. But this time there is a lot of traffic on the ground.
Due to the snow, the trenches dug by Xia thieves, and the constant harassment of more than 2,000 cavalry around him day and night, he only walked ten miles a day, almost setting a record for the slowest march.
The Xia bandits' infantry had not yet appeared, which made him feel a little relieved.
He is not afraid of the cavalry, and the cavalry can't do anything to them, but the infantry can really attack his vehicle formation. And they come in formations. You don't have many soldiers in each small vehicle formation, so they can use more to defeat fewer and gain an advantage.
If the Xia thieves sent out five thousand flying dragon troops at this time, rode around in front of them, and then formed a formation to fight on foot, Kou Yanqing did not think that his troops would have a chance to escape.
Fortunately they didn't!
"Whoosh! Whoosh!" He took out the spare bow string that he was reluctant to use, and the arrows flew out desperately.
Sure enough, the Xia Thieves cavalry just made a show and dispersed far away. Then they divided into two sides, came back from the sides and rear, and took advantage of the wind to shoot arrows.
From yesterday to now, hundreds of people have been killed or injured by this bad trick, and their morale has been extremely low.
After withdrawing this time, I must change to a sidecar that specializes in restraining cavalry. The fender may not be very thick, but it must have one. Grandma, she was bullied miserably by these people.
The motorcade stopped again.
The trench ahead may be the last one, and the soldiers already know what to do without Kou Yanqing's instructions.
Kou Yanqing boarded the carriage and glanced at the confrontation between the two sides.
Gu Xing
Perhaps feeling the crisis, the Xia Army cavalry rushed closer this time. One of the more than a hundred cavalry, regardless of casualties, forcibly inserted into the junction of the Changzhi Army's infantry formation. Although it successfully caused a chaos for the Liang soldiers who were taking soil, However, the casualties were really heavy. Many people were knocked off their horses and stabbed to death.
Traditional mounted shooting tactics are still in play.
Liang Bing put up a large shield and tried his best to resist, but casualties were inevitable, so he could only continue to endure.
Kou Yanqing turned his head and looked to the south. Yique Pass was already visible in the distance.
He suddenly felt very emotional in his heart. It was such an impressive retreat. In all these years of fighting, he had never encountered Xia Thief's style of play.
There were also many cavalry in the vassal towns in Hedong and Hebei. Even in Zhu Jin's heyday, there were large groups of cavalry, but the differences in the methods of using troops were still very big.
Kou Yanqing asked himself whether he was coping well.
After filling in this trench, he should be able to reach a place not far north of Yique Pass before dark. But he would not camp outside the pass. He would have to enter the pass in the dark and at night. It was too unsafe outside.
"Woo——" A dull horn sound came from the north, interrupting Kou Yanqing's thoughts.
He took a closer look and saw another large group of cavalry arriving. It seemed like thousands of cavalry - well, he had a good eye. Each knight of the Leopard Cavalry was served by two "knight retinues", totaling more than 4,000 people.
The light cavalry didn't know where they came from, and Kou Yanqing didn't care. His eyes only followed the armored cavalry.
"These lunatics!" He slapped the carriage angrily.
Amidst the howling north wind, hundreds of Dingyuan Army cavalry launched a charge. With the help of the wind, and possibly the speed of the horses, the arrows densely fell into the long and straight thicket of soldiers arrayed.
After one wave of people rushed in, the second group came in and dropped arrows again.
The horse neighed in pain and almost foamed at the mouth, but the rider showed no mercy and galloped again and again.
At the back, the auxiliary soldiers from the Leopard Cavalry City also entered the battle. They rode pack horses or riding horses. After shooting arrows, they retreated.
Repeatedly.
During the charge, horses often lost their strength and fell to the ground, but no one cared.
One bow string after another was broken, and no one cared.
Everyone seemed to be fighting the last battle, crazy and irrational.
Kou Yanqing finally ordered a retreat because the casualties were too great.
Fortunately, there were temporary obstacles placed around the formation of sergeants. Otherwise, with their morale on the verge of collapse, they would have been annihilated if they were charged by armored cavalry.
…
In the cold wind, the big flag with the character "Zang" flying in the air.
Above the vast snowfield, Tianxiong's army exhaled white steam and marched tirelessly at a fast pace.
Riding back and forth, the information was summarized one by one.
Cai Songyang is a few miles northwest of them, Yang Sheng's tribe is a few miles northeast of them, there are Tiande Army cavalry and Guanbei Fan cavalry in the southwest, and Dingyuan Army cavalry and Leopard Cavalry are in the southeast, adding up to more than 20,000 infantry cavalry, as if
A hammer will crush the walnut of Chang Zhijun.
"There are still four miles, hurry up!" Zang Dubao could almost see Liang's car formation.
Niu Li cheered up and laughed: "If he didn't bring a car, the thief could run faster, and he might have entered Yique Pass by now."
"Without the chariot, the cavalry would have been eaten by the cavalry a long time ago. Why wait until now?" Zang Dubao also smiled: "We still have to come and get this great achievement."
"Military envoy, if you say this, the rest of the army will be scolded." Niu Li smiled and said, "I have killed so many horses by running to death, no matter the cost, just to keep the Changzhi Army. If the credit is all ours,
, I’m afraid many people will be dissatisfied.”
"Yes." Zang Dubao nodded: "After this battle, many cavalry will become infantry."
The crowd burst into laughter and their morale was high.
"Military envoys and scouts have come to report that the bandit army has stopped and formed a camp around the car. It seems that they will not leave." Li Lin, the Marquis of Yu, the capital of Tianxiong Army, came on horseback and reported.
"It's quite vigilant." Zang Dubao commented: "The two armies are only three or four miles apart. If Kou Yanqing insists on heading south and walks so slowly, we will only catch up with him, and it will be difficult to even form a formation.
What if we don't die? Send the order, go forward three miles and then go to the stronghold. Let's take a good rest before fighting."
Since the thief has given up escaping, there is no need to fight while exhausted.
The army continued to move forward, and at two o'clock in the morning, they arrived at a flat field, about a few miles away from Changzhi's army.
They also first built a camp around the car, and then sent people outside to cut down trees and set up fences to strengthen the camp.
The cavalry continued to harass the Liang people, sapping their morale and consuming their physical strength.
From yesterday to now, the Liang people have been tortured by them. If the Xia Army infantry did not come, it would be nothing, but now isn't the Xiong Army coming?
After the banner of the Tianxiong Army was raised, the cavalry scattered on both sides of the Liang people slowly gathered up and rested in the distance. The people needed to recover their physical strength, and the horses that could still fight needed to recover their physical strength even more.
The Liang people's camp was quite busy.
They dismantled many baggage vehicles, chopped them into firewood and burned them. Then they dug trenches around the camp and filled all the soil in front of them to level the trench dug by the Xia army.
There was a faint sad song in the camp, and the officers didn't seem to stop it.
Tianxiong's army began to bury pots and cook. They were not in a hurry to attack now and just quietly recovered their strength.
At nightfall, Cai Songyang's troops arrived and they chose to camp in the west.
Yang Shengbu is still on his way.
The moon silently climbed up to the sky, illuminating the white snow on the ground, almost giving the feeling of a fairyland.
In the bright moonlight, the carts surrounding the camp were moved away, and the planks were placed on the trench.
Group after group of sergeants left the camp.
The people were divided into two parts, one with helmets and armor on his head, heading straight towards the Tianxiong army's camp, and the other carrying baggage, antlers, guns and the like, placed on both sides.
The battle begins with a night attack and continues to the death.
