Three hundred and twentieth chapters beheaded to kill
Ma Sui still led the army to follow the Huaixi Army fifty miles away. He now admired the secret general sent by the prince. Who was this person? He actually led only three hundred cavalry to attack the camp. This kind of courage and bravery made even him
They are all ashamed of themselves.
It also destroyed Li Zhongchen's Huaihe River ferry, preventing his army from returning to Huaixi.
Fifteen thousand cavalry rested overnight and were ready to set off. At this time, several cavalrymen brought a messenger. The messenger saluted on the horse and presented a letter to Ma Sui, "This is my envoy to Marshal Ma."
letter."
Ma Sui took the letter and asked with a smile: "Can you tell me who your envoy is?"
The messenger hesitated and said, "My envoy is the governor of Fengzhou, and the envoy of the three towns, Guo Envoy."
"It turns out it's him!" Ma Sui suddenly realized that this man was good at bringing out surprise soldiers, so it was indeed a clever move for the prince to deploy him in the dark.
He opened the letter and read it carefully. The letter stated that there had been a large number of deserters within the Huaixi Army. The morale of the army was almost collapsed and the perpetrators could not be allowed to escape. The opportunity was ripe for an attack. He suggested that Ma Sui attack immediately. The signature was Fengzhou Guo Song.
Ma Sui nodded and said to the messenger: "Tell your envoy that he and I are on the same page and will attack across the board today."
The messenger soldier bowed and left. Li Chongqian stepped forward and said to Ma Sui: "Isn't Guo Song dismissed from his post?"
Ma Sui said calmly: "He was promoted by the emperor, how could he be dismissed so easily? The so-called dismissal must be a cover-up, and then he was secretly sent to the Central Plains and deployed as a surprise force. The effect was very good! No matter Tian Yue, Li Lingyao or Li Zhongchen
, did not discover the existence of this army, and suffered a big loss from him. If it had not been for him this time, even if we finally defeated Li Zhongchen, we would have suffered heavy casualties. He at least saved the lives of thousands of brothers."
"The commander is right, what should we do now?"
Ma Sui looked at the generals around him, straightened his back and said, "I guess everyone has been waiting for this moment for a long time. Pass my order and the whole army will attack. Merits will be counted with heads!"
Fifteen thousand cavalry suddenly launched and attacked the Huaixi Army fifty miles away...
The appearance of three thousand deserters made Li Zhongchen afraid to go west again. He ordered his soldiers to cut down trees on the spot and build rafts to cross the Huaihe River. This was also a way to cross the river, but it was more dangerous, but Li Zhongchen could no longer care about it.
too much.
His soldiers built a raft with dozens of big trees overnight, surrounded it with wood, like a small boat, and made two oars. However, the raft was too heavy, weighing two thousand kilograms, and it was difficult to move it.
It is quite difficult to reach the Huaihe River, which is two miles away.
While the soldiers were busy building the raft, suddenly, the ground began to tremble slightly. Everyone was surprised and looked around. Someone suddenly pointed to the east and shouted: "What is that?"
I saw a black line appearing in the distance. Gradually, the black line became thicker and thicker, yellow dust billowed, and the earth trembled more violently.
Li Zhongchen suddenly understood and shouted: "The whole army is assembled and ready to fight!"
'Woo--' The horn sounded urgently, and more than 20,000 Huaixi troops gathered in a hurry. The formation was not completely ready, and even the bow and arrow formation had not even had time to line up. The 15,000 Tang army cavalry were already in front of them, groups of them.
The violent war horses rushed into the Huaixi Army like a violent storm...
This was a battle without any suspense. The Huaixi army only supported it for a quarter of an hour before the entire army was defeated. The soldiers fled in all directions, or knelt down and begged, but Prince Li Shi issued a killing order and refused to accept it.
The surrender of this army resulted in the entire army being killed.
Heads were chopped off one after another without mercy or mercy. The cavalry rushed to kill the enemy soldiers and cut off their heads. A bloody massacre unfolded on the ten-mile-long battlefield on the north bank of the Huaihe River. Three soldiers led by Li Zhongchen
The Wanhexi Army was almost completely destroyed.
Even most of the soldiers who fled as deserters died at the hands of local farmers. The Huaixi Army was always brutal and often looted Huaibei, making the local people hate them. In the end, only a few hundred people swam and fled back to their hometowns.
Li Zhongchen, with disheveled hair, was surrounded by dozens of soldiers and ran westward. Their raft was too heavy to carry, so they had to give up.
In the blink of an eye, after escaping for more than ten miles, there were no more pursuers behind him. Li Zhongchen slowed down his horse a little and took a breath. At this moment, a powerful arrow shot towards him, as fast as lightning. In an instant, Li Zhongchen was in front of him.
It was too late for Zhongchen to hide. This "Pfft!" arrow hit his forehead, and the sharp arrow penetrated his head. The tip of the arrow came out from the back of his head. Li Zhongchen screamed, fell off his horse immediately, and died when he landed on the ground.
When dozens of his soldiers were in panic, a thousand Tang army cavalry had surrounded them. Guo Song immediately ordered: "Leave no one behind, kill them all!"
...........
In the end, Li Zhongchen failed to return to Huaixi, and his entire army was destroyed on the north bank of the Huaihe River. He himself also died tragically under Guo Song's arrows. His ambitions and dreams disappeared at this moment.
Just when the news of Li Zhongchen's death reached Hefei, his nephew Li Xilie launched a mutiny that night and killed Li Zhongchen's left-behind general Zhang Huiguang and his son, as well as Li Zhongchen's eldest son Li Chao and several other sons. He inherited Li Zhongchen's army.
and territory.
Li Xilie immediately presented to the emperor, willing to remove the title of the vassal town and pledge allegiance to the imperial court. The emperor Li Yulongyan was very happy and decreed that Li Xilie should stay in Huaixi and be granted the title of King Xin Li Zaoyao as the military envoy of Huaixi. Li Zao did not go to Huaixi to serve.
Huaixi is actually still controlled by Li Xilie.
........
In the imperial study room of the Daming Palace, Emperor Li Yu was in a good mood. He received an express report from Prince Li Shi early in the morning that Li Zhongchen's 30,000 Huaixi Army had been wiped out. This made Li Yu applauded.
Li Zhongchen sent troops to burn, kill, rape and plunder the entire city in Songcheng County, which also made Li Yu furious. He had long heard that Li Zhongchen's troops were brutally harming the people, but he never expected that they would be so unscrupulous and commit violence under the noses of the Tang army.
Li Yu finally couldn't bear it any longer and immediately approved Prince Li Shi's suggestion and decreed that Li Baochen's army must be completely annihilated.
Li Yu read the report again, including the final praise of Guo Song. Guo Song not only led his troops to burn down the ships on the Huaihe River, cut off Li Zhongchen's return journey, and made Li Zhongchen's plan to occupy Yangzhou aborted, but also shot Li Zhongchen in the end.
The plan to annihilate Li Zhongchen was completed.
Prince Li Shi especially praised Guo Song in his report for leading 300 cavalry to attack the enemy camp, burning hundreds of tents, and killing more than 2,000 enemy soldiers, without killing anyone himself. His courage and bravery were extraordinary.
It severely damaged the enemy's morale, shook their morale, and made a huge contribution to the final annihilation of Li Zhongchen's army.
Li Yulong was overjoyed. Guo Song's success was his Li Yu's success, which showed that his secret move was extremely exquisite. He paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, thinking about the reward for Guo Song.
At this time, the eunuch said at the door: "Your Majesty, Prime Minister Han wants to see you!"
"Invite him in!"
Not long after, Han Huang hurriedly walked in, bowed and saluted: "See your Majesty!"
"Xiangguo Han is here just in time. Take a look at this report."
Li Yu handed the prince's report to Han Huang, who smiled and said: "We have also heard that Ma Jiedushi led 15,000 cavalry to defeat Li Zhongchen on the north bank of the Huaihe River and rescued thousands of captive women.
, it relieves the hatred in people’s hearts!”
"Resolving hatred is one aspect, but we cannot ignore some of the meritorious officials behind it."
Han Huang was startled and quickly opened the report to take a closer look. After a while, he was stunned. Guo Song was actually on the battlefield in the Central Plains. Didn't he resign?
"Your Majesty, what's going on with Guo Song?"
Li Yu said calmly: "He is a secret move that I planted in the Central Plains. He is good at using surprise troops and has repeatedly performed extraordinary feats on the battlefields of the Central Plains, including burning warships in the Yellow River and Huaihe River, cutting off Tian Chengsi's army and Li Yu.
The loyal army's retreat was followed by the assassination of Li Lingyao, so that his men were leaderless and surrendered.
Secondly, he played a crucial role in defeating Li Baochen. Both the prince and Ma Sui believed that he had 70% of the credit. Although it is a bit exaggerated, I recognize his and Ma Sui's 50-50 credit."
Han Huang understood what the emperor meant. He hoped to gain his approval in re-assigning Guo and Song.
Han Huang bowed and said: "Gong Yan has investigated the truth about Jinshan's fiasco. The root cause was that Li Huaiguang sent troops to kill and plunder the people of Xue Yantuo's tribe, which aroused the public anger of other tribes in the grassland. Twenty-one of Xue Yantuo's tribes were killed by him, fourteen of them."
, even the children who are a few months old are not spared. This is too cruel, and it is reasonable for the Sijie Ministry and the Uighur Ministry to send troops to intervene.
But if Li Huaiguang could give up immediately and evacuate Jinshan quickly, the war could still be avoided. However, he refused to give up the property he plundered in Xueyantuo, and had a tough attitude towards Sijie, which eventually led to a war between the two sides. In the end, the Tang army was defeated miserably. During this period, Li Huaiguang did not have any
Asking Guo Song for help, only to have Guo Song take responsibility for the war in the end is too far-fetched and unfair."
Li Yu sighed, "His achievements in defending the territory have not even been commended. He not only defended Fengzhou, but also killed Chief Xue Yantuo in the war. However, he did not receive any commendation from the court and was forced to resign. He is indeed commendable."
unfair."
"Your Majesty, it is indeed unfair. He only impeached him for yelling at the court and committing crimes below, but ignored the reason why he committed crimes below, which was because of the slander of his character and unfair trial. Chang Xiangguo has a stain on this matter.
At the same time, he also had the unshirkable responsibility for appointing Li Huaiguang as the governor of Shuofang. After Yan Gong's investigation report was sent to the court, many ministers were very sympathetic to Guo Song and criticized Chang Xiangguo."
Han Huang was also quite dissatisfied with Chang Gun's monopoly on power. He took this opportunity today to criticize Chang Gun mercilessly.
Li Yu nodded, "I remember his merits clearly. In fact, asking him to resign is just my strategy. I know that he has nothing to do with the defeat of Jinshan. When he comes back, I will definitely make good use of him. I won't
I care about Chang Xiangguo’s attitude.”
"Your Majesty is wise!"
Li Yu smiled and asked: "Why is Han Xiangguo so anxious to see me?"