Pei Xin was responsible for attacking the east. He fully implemented the commander's order and divided the 15,000 Hexi cavalry into fifteen teams. He used powerful bows and arrows to shoot open gaps, and the Hexi cavalry rushed in.
The enemy's formation was divided into several parts, and then further divided into one hundred and fifty cavalry teams of one hundred men. They were interspersed and divided, and the spear formation to the east was broken into pieces.
At this time, the two Chinese armies in front also collided with each other. Five thousand elite Jin troops faced off against 10,000 elite Hexi troops. The five thousand elite Jin troops could have been one against three, but unfortunately they encountered the strongest of the Hexi troops.
of heavy armored infantry.
Their spears couldn't stop the Mo Dao's chops from the opponent's hand, and were cut off one after another with one knife. Even the iron scale armor on their bodies couldn't stop the Mo Dao's sharpness. When the Mo Dao passed by, the armor broke and the corpses were separated.
The battlefield turned into a one-sided slaughterhouse, with bodies chopped off, heads split off, flesh and blood rolling, corpses piled up, and the air filled with an extremely disgusting stench.
Even though Li Huaiguang was brave and good at fighting, he could not stop the Mo Dao infantry from killing like demons. They were defeated step by step and suffered extremely heavy casualties.
Just half an hour after the battle started, Li Huaiguang's army could no longer hold on. As expected by Guo Song, the first to be defeated was the new militia army in the east. Not long ago, they were farmers farming in the fields.
The ignorant went to the battlefield and were a little excited at first, but they saw the cruel and merciless killings, heard the screams before death, and saw their familiar friends being pierced through the chest with a spear before their eyes, and died before their eyes.
More and more militia soldiers collapsed. First, hundreds of people in the southernmost area fled, and soon they completely collapsed. The soldiers threw away their spears, took off their leather armor, and ran away desperately, yelling.
Guo Song immediately ordered: "Ignore the enemy's retreat in the east and concentrate your forces to destroy the enemy's central army!"
Most of the fleeing soldiers on the east wing are militiamen. As long as they take off their armor, they basically pose no threat. In the end, they will just flee back to their homes. They can indeed be ignored. However, it is the Chinese Army who are Li Huaiguang's die-hard confidants and Li Huaiguang Nan.
The key to the fugitives' revival is to kill them all to completely destroy Li Huaiguang's power.
The 15,000 cavalrymen of the Hexi Army surrounded the Chinese Army from the south and east, while Mo Dao ruthlessly slaughtered them from the north.
At this time, there was chaos on the battlefield. The Jin army on the east wing fled in full force, which also caused the army on the west wing to waver and flee. Only the Chinese army under the command of Li Huaiguang firmly supported it. However, the Vietnam War became less and less, and more than half of the casualties were lost.
At this time, Lieutenant General Wang Wu shouted: "Your Majesty, if we continue to fight, the entire army will be destroyed, so retreat!"
Li Huaiguang saw that the two wings had been defeated and only a little over 2,000 men were left in the central army. The opponent became more and more courageous as they fought. The defeat was inevitable. He was in great pain and had to shout: "Send my order and the entire army retreats to Zezhou."
!”
It is no longer possible to retreat to Shangdang County. The enemy is cavalry and may be ahead of them in the city. They can only retreat to Zezhou.
Li Huaiguang led two thousand Chinese troops to leave the battlefield first, broke out a bloody road, and routed to the south. His troops to the east were also completely routed.
For a time, the army was defeated like a mountain, and Guo Song ordered to blow the horn of pursuit.
'Woo--Woo--'
The pursuit horn sounded, and the morale of the Hexi Army exploded. They pursued the enemy across the board. The fleeing soldiers could not outrun the horses. They were desperate and knelt down one after another to surrender. No matter how strong the soldiers were, they collapsed at this moment, just hoping to save their lives.
life.
The cavalry of the Hexi Army pursued them for more than fifty miles before retreating. In this battle, the Hexi Army killed more than 4,000 enemies, captured more than 15,000, and escaped less than 3,000, including the soldiers who followed Li Huaiguang and fled to Zezhou.
There were less than 300 people, and most of the escaped soldiers went home directly.
Groups of dejected prisoners of war were escorted in. Guo Song stood at a height and watched these prisoners of war. Yao Jin asked in a low voice: "How do you plan to deal with them?"
Guo Song pondered for a while and said: "All the militia soldiers can be released, and each one will be given a bucket of grain. I plan to make the other soldiers mine and atone for their sins, and release them back to their hometowns after three years."
"These soldiers have good fighting ability. Don't you plan to use them?"
Guo Song shook his head, "Most of them have followed Li Huaiguang for many years. They are relatively loyal to Li Huaiguang and difficult to control. Let them mine iron ore."
"That's right. Mining is a good idea. Are there iron mines in Hedong?"
"Of course there are. There are many iron mines in Hedong, and there are several in the north of Taiyuan Prefecture. They are all former official mines. We have iron mines, so mining should be easier."
Guo Song ordered the prisoners of war to be strictly guarded, and he led thousands of cavalry into Shangdang County. Most of the officials in Luzhou fled. Only Xue Shaoliang, the magistrate of Shangdang County, led a few left-behind officials to greet Guo Song at the city gate.
Guo Song heard from Xue Fan that the magistrate of Shangdang County was a descendant of the Xue family and was a Jinshi. Xue Fan hoped that Xue Shaoliang would resign and return to Taiyuan, but Guo Song asked him to stay in Shangdang County.
"Xue Shaoliang, the county magistrate of Dang County, who takes the humble position, meets with Guo Shijun!"
Guo Song smiled and nodded, "I heard the head of the Xue family talk about you. Xue County Cheng did not let me down. He really persevered to the end."
"It is a humble honor to serve Lord Guo."
Xue Shaoliang bowed again and introduced several other officials to Guo Song, "This is Han Bannong, the county chief, this is Zhang Yan, the state household Cao who joined the army, and Hao Xiaode who joined the army in Cangcao. We are the only officials left in Luzhou and Shangdang counties."
Four people."
"Why are there only four people left?" Guo Song was a little confused.
Xue Shaoliang smiled bitterly and said: "They are all loyal to Li Huaiguang. They were afraid that the emperor would liquidate them, so they ran away two days ago."
Guo Song nodded, "From now on, Xue Shaoliang will serve as the magistrate of Shangdang County and the governor of Lu, Han Bannong will serve as the magistrate of Shangdang County, and Zhang Yan and Hao Xiaode will concurrently serve as the county lieutenant and chief registrar of Shangdang County."
The four of them were overjoyed and bowed together to salute, "Thank you for your entrustment!"
Zhang Yan and Hao Xiaode were so happy that they couldn't close their mouths together. They just joined the army and were just minor officials. They mustered up the courage to welcome Guo Song, but they didn't expect to be promoted to officials all of a sudden.
Guo Song urged his horse towards the city and asked again: "How many people are there in the county?"
Xue Shaoliang hurriedly said: "I inform you, Shangdang County has a total population of 170,000, of which about 100,000 live in the county, and the others live outside the county."
"How much grain is left in the warehouse now?"
"The official warehouses of prefectures and counties only have 30,000 shi of grain, but the military warehouses have 300,000 shi of grain, 100,000 dans of fodder, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, a large amount of copper coins, and many other supplies."
"Where is the military warehouse? Take me to see it."
Everyone walked and talked, and quickly headed towards the county town.
.........
Li Huaiguang panicked like a bereft dog and led 300 soldiers to flee to Gaoping County, Zezhou. As soon as he sat down to rest in the county office, one of his men rushed to report, "Your Majesty, there is a Hexi cavalry chasing after you in the distance. There are several of them."
There are as many as a thousand people.”
Li Huaiguang stood up in shock and was actually chasing after him. He kept saying: "Hurry to the door and go out through the south gate!"
At this time, a soldier came up with a plan and said: "The prince can simply disguise himself as a commoner and hide in Gaoping County. Let's go and lure the enemy away."
This method was not bad, and Li Huaiguang immediately adopted it. He changed into the clothes of a wealthy businessman and hid in a house with two soldiers.
Three hundred soldiers continued to flee south on horseback, while Pei Xin led five thousand cavalry and pursued them non-stop.
The magistrate of Gaoping County was named Zhan Chaogui. He hurriedly hid Li Huaiguang in a big businessman's house, and sent away thousands of Hexi cavalry before returning to his house.
Wang En, his aide, said to him in a low voice: "County Lord, I heard that both the governor and the chief minister of Zezhou have escaped."
"They were all promoted by Li Huaiguang. It is normal for them to escape."
"But the vacancy is there, wouldn't the county magistrate be interested?"
"What do you mean?" Zhan Chaogui glanced at him.
"Now a golden opportunity is in front of the county king. It depends on whether the county king can seize it."
Zhan Chaogui's heart moved, "You mean Li Huaiguang."
Wang En nodded, "There are only two people around him now! If the county monarch can dedicate him to Guo Song, the position of chief historian of Zezhou must belong to the county monarch."
Zhan Chaogui's heart was pounding, and the thought of seeking reward for his meritorious service surged into his heart uncontrollably.