The stream is wide and shallow. It is indeed inconvenient for infantry to cross the river with heavy armor, but it is convenient for cavalry!
Chen Tingxiao and his knights, who had been suppressed for more than ten days, completely released themselves and fully displayed their combat effectiveness.
This kind of fledgling recruit has a very big characteristic that I don't know whether it is an advantage or a disadvantage, that is, after winning a battle, it is easy to enter a state of madness.
For example, now, Chen Tingxiao personally killed the enemy general Hu Lunqian, and after using a thousand cavalry to defeat nearly ten thousand enemy cavalry, he dared to continue the pursuit.
In his opinion, it is only seven or eight miles to the right and left, so what does it matter!
Therefore, before Guang Guangyi led his army to the creek, he was immediately beaten on the head.
Before he could gather the defeated troops, he saw Chen Tingxiao's troops mixed inside, driving the defeated troops in units of a hundred cavalry, like fish in the sea, causing waves of bloodshed throughout his army.
There was even a wave of cavalry rushing in front of him. The White Wolf Army, which regarded Guang Guangyi as their foundation, shot the man off his back.
In this scene, after a great victory, the crazy new recruits bursting with pride can fight, and a thousand cavalry will shuttle back and forth among the 40,000 cavalry to kill. Under normal circumstances, veteran oilmen really can't do such a thing.
Rushing from left to right, Chen Tingxiao killed countless thieves until the blood soaked the entire horse branch and it felt extremely slippery and could no longer be used. Only then did he regain some consciousness, so he quickly ordered his followers to release fireworks. He summoned his cavalry to retreat.
All the soldiers rushed towards the direction of the fireworks soaring into the sky, but when Chen Tingxiao checked, there was still the second general named A who had not returned to the team.
The fourth general's general Yuhou's face was covered with blood. While bandaging the wound on his forehead, he said: "General Jia's head seems to be surrounded to the west. When the servants rushed over, I seemed to hear him roaring."
Chen Tingxiao looked around. At this time, the blood in his head had cooled down a bit, and all the soldiers had a look of retreat on their faces. After all, there were 40,000 people on the opposite side, all of them cavalry. It was not easy for them to rush out.
Chen Tingxiao took the water bag handed to him by his personal attendant, washed the dirty blood off the horse, and then raised his arms and shouted.
"How can I, a great athlete of the Zhou Dynasty, not save my comrades when they see them in dire straits? If we don't save Generals A and 2 today, who will come to save us when we are trapped in a tight siege in the future?"
Hearing what Chen Tingxiao said, the right horse army was in Yuhou. Xiao's general Shi Shouxin rode his horse out and said with emotion: "What the commander said makes sense. We will come back together as soon as we come together. Servant Shi Shouxin will follow the commander to the death. Even if you die in battle, you will never survive alone."
Shi Shouxin's agreement immediately boosted morale. After all, no one wanted to be regarded as a greedy person who lived alone and was afraid of death.
Chen Tingxiao was overjoyed and immediately arranged for the injured to evacuate first. He personally selected 400 cavalrymen, hoisted the silver flag, and rushed towards the place where General A2 was surrounded.
General A2 was indeed surrounded, and it was particularly dangerous, because after the others rushed out, Guo Guangyi, who felt humiliated, ordered the White Wolf Army to also join in besieging General A2.
Therefore, Generals A and 2, under the leadership of General Jia Yuhou, fought hard to kill, but they could not get out because there were more and more enemy troops.
However, these enemy cavalry did not expect that Chen Tingxiao had escaped from trouble and dared to rush back with 400 cavalry. Unexpectedly, the beaten man fell over on his back.
General A2 was almost desperate, but suddenly he saw the dazzling silver-white flag and heard the shouts of his comrades to kill, and his morale was immediately boosted. The two sides charged in the same direction, and unexpectedly fought their way out again when surrounded by thousands of horsemen. A bloody road.
Although the enemy cavalry was caught off guard and their morale dropped a lot, there were so many people after all, they still wanted to pursue them in tandem.
Shi Shouxin shouted and personally led twenty mounted sharpshooters. He distanced himself and stood on a small hill holding a strong bow.
Looking at the countless pursuers in the distance, Shi Shouxin and his twenty cavalrymen calmly drew their bows. They all shot with great skill, and countless pursuers fell in response to the bow.
In just ten breaths, Shi Shouxin and others ignored the soreness in their arms and quickly shot seven or eight arrows each, knocking down hundreds of chasing soldiers and frightening hundreds of horsemen in the distance. Come forward.
Although Shi Shouxin's arms were shaking due to exhaustion, he was in an extremely happy mood. He laughed three times before retreating with his twenty sharpshooters.
The pursuers behind me looked at each other. I don’t know who had the courage to urge the horses, but they actually caught up again.
But just after passing the hill, I suddenly heard a loud shout, "You dare to come forward, you thief? Are you here to die?"
The pursuers looked up and saw that it was the terrifying Tang general holding a horse spear, rushing back with hundreds of cavalry.
They were trying their best to summon up the courage to pursue this time, but they could not withstand the counterattack that Chen Tingxiao had prepared long ago. Before they could join the formation, the cavalry dispersed in panic.
Chen Tingxiao led Baiqi and chased them for several hundred steps, only to kill them all, knocking them off their horses, colliding with each other and causing countless people to fall off their horses, before returning.
Thanks to Chen Tingxiao's command, Hu Guang took the opportunity to order a thousand elite soldiers from Yao Yuanfu's command and Li Jixun to lead a thousand strong crossbowmen from the White Camp in front of the palace to cross the stream and form an array.
Hu Guang did this on purpose. He could have passed through 4,000 people, but there were only 2,000 people. He clearly wanted to stimulate Guo Guangyi to lead his cavalry to attack and let them taste the power of crossbows.
Guo Guangyi had already been stimulated and was about to lose his mind. He commanded 40,000 cavalry, but was killed by more than 1,000 Zhou army cavalry back and forth in the formation, killing at least 2,000 of him.
This is no longer a matter of face, but a matter of whether the morale of the military will collapse if we continue to kill like this.
At this moment, he saw that there were only one or two thousand Zhou troops crossing the stream, and he suddenly realized keenly that this was a good time to attack halfway across the river.
Guo Guangyi immediately ordered people to beat drums, personally selected 15,000 elite cavalry, and took 500 heavily armored White Wolf troops as the vanguard. He must eat these 2,000 Zhou troops to restore the morale of the army.
Yao Yuanfu and Li Jixun are both veterans, especially Yao Yuanfu. He has been fighting against the Khitans in Datong since he was fourteen years old. He is fifty-six years old this year and has so much experience that Guo Guangyi could not even break his head to keep up with them. to the point where.
Seeing the enemy's cavalry coming with a fierce force, he said to Li Jixun: "Although the Hu cavalry of this generation are powerful, they are not as numerous as the Khitan and Zhugu people.
Why don't we show weakness and wait until within a hundred steps, the enemy cavalry gathers together and the speed is fast, and then use powerful crossbows to fire, we will definitely be able to defeat them! "
Li Jixun thought so, so he ordered his men to put up a large shield, but instead of using a forest of spears, he just hid 1,500 crossbowmen in a triple formation behind the shield.
Originally, when these thieves came riding on horseback, I was a little worried.
Because they were beaten very embarrassingly just now. Although they were not beaten themselves, they could also see how embarrassing their colleagues were being beaten.
But when they saw it, Tang Er on the opposite side could only use a large shield to protect him, and he didn't even have a few spears. How could such an approach scare the war horses? There was a stream behind them. After being penetrated by an impact, there was no way There is no escape.
Thinking of this, the morale of the Hu knights was greatly boosted. They shouted and roared, and the originally scattered formation began to gather together.
Because everyone thought this was an opportunity to pinch the enemy, they naturally rushed forward. Many people even thought that as long as they rushed sixty steps and shot the first wave of arrows and missed, the opponent would collapse.
"Bang!" A dazzling firework rushed into the air. Seventy steps later, Hu Qi's speed had already increased. Yao Yuanfu shouted, and the soldiers in the front row suddenly took off the big shield and smashed it with one thousand five hundred weapons. Zhang Nu appeared in everyone's eyes instantly.
"Whoa! Whoa!" Two thousand warriors roared like apes at the same time. Their move frightened the enemy's horses.
Then Yao Yuanfu fiercely waved the command flag, and 1,500 crossbows were fired in three stages.
It's too awful! It’s so miserable! The crossbows within sixty steps were fired, and the arrows fired were invincible. The charging Hu Qi seemed to have hit an invisible iron curtain. Many people fell off their horses, and countless people fell off their horses.
And because they were eager to grab the credit, the formation that came up was too dense, as if they were deliberately sent up to receive crossbow arrows.
Each of the 1,500 crossbowmen in a triple formation fired two rounds, and a total of 3,000 crossbow arrows flew out. In such a dense formation of the enemy's cavalry, they killed at least a thousand of them.
Nearly 10% was lost in a short period of time, so much so that a huge dent was created in the charging enemy cavalry formation.
On the battlefield, the horses were neighing miserably, and the people were moaning. The noise was so loud, but in the hearts of every Hu Qi, there was a silence like death.
】
In the original river, a duel between tens of thousands of horsemen would often last for several days before the losses were so heavy, and then the battle would be over.
What frightened them even more was that many of the people rolling and screaming on the ground were wearing piece of armor or chain mail.
In the Central Plains, those who have armor are all heroes from the same village, not to mention in the river. Those who can wear armor are Lord Burke from all over the country, and even Lord Yinketa who owns fiefs and fiefs. .
These armors were the guarantee of their status and even their lives, because ordinary herdsmen, whether they were Oghuz or Uighurs, or Sogdians and Persians under the rule of Saman Persia, did not have the ability to break armor.
Therefore, in the melee in Hezhong over the years, very few of the men with iron armor died. Most of those lying on their backs were herdsmen who went to the battlefield wrapped in sheepskin jackets with broken bows and wooden guns.
Therefore, at least hundreds of armored cavalry were shot to death at once. The heavy blow to these people's hearts was no less or even greater than that of thousands of armed herdsmen being shot to death.
But they fell into panic, but Yao Yuanfu didn't. He handed the command flag to Li Jixun, roared and took the lead in the battle, followed by the two hundred tooth soldiers he selected from the Central Plains.
They were armed with long Ke axes, large wooden poles, and wearing heavy armor. They pounced like wolves and tigers on the thieves who were in chaos.
The thieves and cavalry were only now reacting. No one dared to resist, and they all wanted to turn their horses around and retreat. But the more they tried to run away, the more chaotic they became.
So there was a jaw-dropping scene on the battlefield. Yao Yuanfu and other two to three hundred people chased thousands of cavalry and killed them. None of the cavalry fought back. They even trampled on each other because they collided into a ball, and were killed by their own people. , almost as many as those killed by Yao Yuanfu and others.
Hu Guang saw it on the east bank of the river and couldn't help but clapped his hands, "Yakong is nearly sixty years old and is still so brave. It's really Lian Po who is still alive!"
After the compliment, Hu Guang waved his hand and said, "Zuo Zhang Shen Nu Camp, Zuo Hu Ben Guards followed a certain person to cross the river. That Guo thief is going to jump over the wall in a hurry!"
On the west bank of the river, Hu Guang once again guessed Guo Guangyi's next move. Seeing 15,000 cavalry charge and kill the 2,000 infantrymen on the opposite side, and the killed people flipped on their backs, the soldiers' morale was shaken and seemed uneasy.
Among the 50,000 troops, Guo Guangyi himself only has 20,000, and half of them are armed herdsmen who came to make up the numbers. The other 20,000 are the 20,000 who were 'sponsored' by his prospective father-in-law, the Creek Ministry, and the remaining 10,000 They are mercenaries recruited from various places.
Now the White Wolf Army's casualties exceed 30%, and Guo Guangyi's strength has been greatly damaged. If he were an ordinary person, he would definitely want to escape, but Guo Guangyi would not, because he knew that he could not escape.
After being defeated like this, he couldn't even pay the balance of the mercenaries, let alone what the Creeks thought of him. He might not be able to retreat to Talas City, and would either be killed by the mercenaries or murdered by the Creeks. .
Rather than being killed, it is better to incite the Creek tribe and mercenaries to die now. The more they die, the safer Guo Guangyi will be.
"Baishui City, Talas, and a certain family have all contributed. If necessary, it is not impossible to marry in. We still have more than 30,000 riders. As long as we work together, we will defeat the Tang army!"
Guo Guangyi offered a bait that the Creeks could not refuse. These two cities were what the Creeks wanted most, and the hundreds of thousands of people who annexed Guo Guangyi were also what the Creeks wanted most.
"Then as King Khan wishes, we will take those divine warriors from the Tianfang Sect as the vanguard and defeat the Tang army in one fell swoop!"
The general sent by the Creek tribe compromised. Although the Tang army on the opposite side was powerful, there was nothing to be afraid of because they had few cavalry.
Hu Guang stood in the formation, stroking his beard and couldn't help but smile. He didn't have 1,500 crossbows now, but 4,500 crossbows.
This configuration, let alone defeating these miscreants, was enough for the Southern Song Dynasty to shoot the Jin Kingdom's cavalry.
The thieves rolled up smoke and dust and rushed from three directions. They seemed to be huge, but what they faced was an average height of 5 feet 6 inches, which is more than 1.7 meters. They were wearing heavy armor and holding crossbows. The elite heavenly soldiers of the Central Plains armed with Mo Dao.
The arrows are like locusts, and the swords are like trained horses.
These thieves didn't have the slightest chance, and they changed from howling to howling. Not to mention penetrating the Zhou army formation, there were only a few who could even get close enough to fight Mo Dao.
Li Ji's eyes were red with anxiety, and the soldiers under his command also rushed to his side, making his head hurt from the noise.
"Marquis Yu, we are the ones appointed by the saint to accompany the general in the Western Expedition! You are the most powerful general in the army. You usually hold your head high in the sky, thinking that you are brave.
The whole army has made a great contribution today, but we are here to eat the wind and drink the sand. We haven't accomplished an inch of merit, and we haven't killed a single enemy. How can we stand in front of others with dignity in the future! "
As he spoke, this irritable guy even threw his iron helmet directly to the ground, panting like a bellows, hating that Li Jixie had not been able to seize the opportunity to go to the battlefield.
Li Jizai got angry and went up to him, punching and kicking her, "If you think I don't want to fuck your mother-in-law, what can you do if Mr. Hu doesn't allow it?"
"Who said you are not allowed to get in?" Hu Guang walked to the back seriously at this time and glared at Li Jixie and the warriors under his command.
Then he said to the military judge beside him: "Li Jixie beat his colleague, remember, he will be fined half a month's salary."
Half a month's salary? Who cares!
Li Jixie quickly stepped forward and crossed his arms to Hu Guang, "The general manager has no objection to punishing the servant for a month. I just ask the general manager to let a certain man go into battle to kill the enemy."
As soon as Hu Guang saw the atmosphere, he put his arm around Li Jixi's shoulders and pointed to him where the banner stood in the distance.
"Look at the big banner in the distance, it must be where the Guo thief is. Can someone kill him?"
Li Jixie was overjoyed. It turned out that the manager wanted to use his good steel on the blade!
"Here! Don't worry, manager, I will take the head of the Guo thief with two hundred cavalry!"
"I don't have 200 riders. I'll give you at most 150 riders. The others are still useful." Hu Guang shook his head and shook his finger.
"Okay! But I have to choose the people myself." Li Jixie agreed, and then quickly went down to select the people.
The competition immediately became fierce, and everyone tried their best to be chosen.
Hu Guang smiled again, it's not that they can't give two hundred riders, but if they give two hundred riders, they won't have the fighting spirit that is about to explode now.
Li Jixie put on his cloth-covered armor, put on his iron helmet, and held a round shield and saber. As a man of little education, two lines of Li Taibai's poems suddenly flashed through his mind, and he couldn't help but chant them.
'Zhao Keman and Hu Ying, Wu Gou's frost and snow are bright. The silver saddle shines on the white horse, rustling like a shooting star. '
The athletes behind them all sang, "Kill one in ten steps, kill one in ten steps!" The fighting spirit was high.
Li Jixie shouted, "Accelerate as fast as you can at one hundred and fifty steps, don't care about anything else, just kill the general and capture the flag!"
In response to the roar, the hundred and fifty elite cavalry walked around the side of the battlefield in a very low-key manner. It was not until they were almost two hundred steps away from Guo Guangyi's banner that the Hu cavalry discovered them, and then roared towards them. .
Arrows were raining down, and Li Jixie held up his round shield high. The tinkling sound was heard endlessly, and he felt pains like being beaten all over his body. His whole body was like a hedgehog.
Li Jixie didn't care at all, and his speed increased instead of slowing down, until he rushed to more than a hundred paces. He threw down his buckler with a loud shout and took out the big bow on the side of his horse.
The soldiers behind him also drew their bows together with him, and suddenly the arrows were like locusts. Those who fell in response to the bows followed the bows, and they forced their way through the enemy cavalry.
After firing five arrows in a row, Li Jixie threw away the hard bow in his hand, pulled out a pair of cooked copper maces, lifted up his visor, and headed towards the big banner to kill. Along the way, he knocked down many horsemen and smashed them with hammers. Horse head.
But Guo Guangyi was able to rise up in the chaos, and he did still have a group of loyal subordinates. Although the White Wolf Army wearing chain armor had average combat effectiveness, and the chain armor was completely unable to defend against the attacks of cooked copper maces, they still fought one after another. Blocked up.
Seeing a man wearing black chainmail and a water-red cape being surrounded by a group of armored soldiers leaving, Li Jixie let out a thunderous roar, danced wildly with his maces, and beat the enemy cavalry with howls in agony.
Unfortunately, there were too many people on the other side, and there might not be hundreds of riders. Li Jixie only had twenty or thirty riders around him at this time. Although he tried his best to charge, he still couldn't get close.
Seeing this, Li Jixie took out another spare bow and shot three arrows at the man. He only heard screams and hit him in the back, but he did not fall off the horse.
This was God's will. Li Jixie immediately turned his horse around and stopped chasing. He and the twenty cavalry around him went to kill the big banner on the hillside. Then he ordered his own men to accompany him and overturned the banner. It was too thick and he chopped it down. If so, it would probably take half a day to cut.
As the big banner collapsed, Hu Qi, who had been unable to support himself, was completely defeated.
Hu Guang personally held his armor and held a spear. At this point in the battle, the situation was settled and there was no need for many guards. He patted his brother Hu Qilang Hu Zun on the shoulder and said.
"I expected that Li Jixie might not be able to catch the Guo thief, and it turned out to be the case today. With thirty cavalry, you must bite the Guo thief, leave a mark along the way, and be sure to capture this person alive!"
Hu Zun was the son of the Hu family who returned eastward with Hu Guang, and was Hu Guang's most trustworthy brother. He immediately nodded his head, took the thirty cavalry that Hu Guang deliberately left behind, and rode lightly in pursuit.
Guo Guangyi led his remaining 200-odd horsemen and cronies and galloped wildly. The warmth behind him was caused by the shot of the general just now. Fortunately, he had a fine chainmail armor and was far away from him. The injury was just a scratch on the skin.
And he was able to choose to retreat so quickly because he had already thought about it. He had already thought about how to escape if he couldn't defeat him, and now he actually used it.
It's just that the feeling of using this is quite bad!
Because although we can escape now, the foundation built over more than ten years has been completely destroyed.
Now he only has one or two hundred men left, but no one will let him go among the mercenaries he tricked and the Creek tribe who suffered great losses.
Even the two hundred white wolf army guards around him would become unreliable.
Thinking of this, Guo Guangyi ordered people to throw away the stomach to facilitate his escape, and shouted to everyone.
"Let's go to Talas. Although the city cannot be defended, the treasures in the city's treasury are still there. Each of you will take five hundred dinars of silver.
If you are willing to follow me from now on, let's go to Saman Persia together. The Tang army is so powerful that it will definitely covet the territory of Saman Persia. His Highness Hajib Salah of the Saman Kingdom will definitely have some use for us.
If you don't want to go with someone, these five hundred silver dinars can be regarded as severance pay, and it will not be in vain for us, master and servant. "
This was said beautifully, and it immediately stabilized the military's morale, which was already a little shaken. The guards around him expressed that they would continue to follow King Khan.
After successfully crossing a mountain ridge, Guo Guangyi finally felt better, because after passing this mountain ridge and then passing through a canyon, he could reach Talas City.
Although there were twenty or thirty riders behind them all the time, Guo Guangyi was not impatient.
There are nearly 50,000 people east of Hu Shuicheng. Those Tang'er only have 7,000 or 8,000 people. Let alone killing them, it would take a long time to catch them. As long as there is no army to chase them now, he can escape.
But just when he was about to escape, Guo Guangyi suddenly felt the ground shaking, and the sound of intensive horse hooves came from ahead. The ambitious man felt as if he was struck by lightning, and he screamed and almost fell off his horse.
I saw groups of cavalry constantly appearing in the canyon in the distance. They were like swarms of bees leaving their nests, and soon they were everywhere.
The leading cavalrymen all had small golden sun and moon flags on a silver-white background on their backs. They looked like Zhongyuan's army at a glance.
Lu Sanlang's younger brother Lu Dingbang rode at the front. This army was Bai Congxin's 40,000 elite cavalry.
They arrived at Talas City two days ago and quickly captured it. After that, they learned about Guo Guangyi's army in Hu Shuicheng, so they came overnight.
Seeing a small cavalry team of one to two hundred people in front of him, Lu Dingbang thought it was Guo Thief's scouting team, and immediately ordered his subordinate Yiqi to surround and kill them.
Hu Zun saw it in the distance, quickly threw away his weapon, and ran forward with a silver-white gold sun and moon flag, shouting desperately: "Don't hurt your life! Don't hurt your life!"
