Chapter 657: Thunder to Help
The distance from Heyang Nancheng to Jinyong City is not too far. In order to deal with various unexpected changes and be able to reinforce all parties in time, Zhu Hunyuan has always kept an elite cavalry ready to go into battle at any time.
After knowing the enemy's movement for sure, Zhu Hunyuan immediately issued the order to attack, but in order to avoid it being a suspicious plan, Zhu Hunyuan did not attack personally this time, but only ordered his trusted subordinates to attack. The general will lead his troops there and give the order that no matter what happens, this group of enemy cavalry must be held firmly and not be allowed to harm other parties.
After receiving the order from the general, he immediately led his troops to set off. When they arrived at Jinyong City, the enemy troops had also entered Luobei through the Luoshui Floating Bridge, but they did not come straight to Jinyong City, but went northwest.
"Attack! Your Majesty has an order, this bandit army must not be let go!"
Seeing that the enemy's movement was not in line with the general's prediction, the cavalry general was startled, but he didn't think much about it and immediately gave the order to charge straight towards the enemy formation.
"Follow the flag and don't be tempted to fight!"
When Li Tai heard the sound of galloping horse hooves from the side in the direction of Jinyong City, he did not hesitate and immediately ordered his troops to speed up their march and march all the way north along the Xianshui River Valley to the mountains of Mang Mountain.
The two sides chased and escaped, and in the blink of an eye they had traveled another ten miles. As they entered the mountains and forests, the river gradually tightened, and the vegetation on both sides became more and more dense.
Since the elite cavalry of the Qi army were ready for battle, and most of the soldiers were covered with armor, while the Western Wei troops had no intention of fighting at all, there was a slight gap in their marching speeds, and the distance gradually widened.
However, as the mountain road gradually became rugged, the advancing speed of the Western Wei people also slowed down. There are seven or eight miles ahead of us, and although the road is still clear and variable, it is so rugged that it is difficult to ride horizontally.
At this time, the Qi army chasing from the rear finally came closer and began to gather momentum to charge towards the rear of the Western Wei people.
However, at this moment, flags were suddenly hoisted and drums and horns were blaring in the mountains on both sides. The ambush troops that had been planned here were condescendingly firing their bows at the Northern Qi troops in the valley.
The sudden change naturally shocked the Qi army. However, because the river valley here was quite wide and most of the soldiers were covered with armor, although they were ambushed, there were no immediate heavy casualties.
Of course, riots are always inevitable. In shock, many Qi soldiers subconsciously turned their horses to flee, or fought left and right, and a series of stampedes inevitably occurred.
"Don't panic, don't panic! The enemy's ambush is small, so quickly form a formation and kill the enemy!"
The cavalry general was quite panicked at first, but it didn't take long to discover that although there was a lot of noise on both sides of the river valley, the actual arrows fired were not many, and they were far away from the river bank, so their lethality was very limited.
Hearing the reminder from the commander, the other soldiers quickly noticed this and hurriedly restrained their troops, gradually letting the commotion calm down. The soldiers at the front took the initiative to dismount and form an array, while the horses were pulled to the rear. A battle formation of infantry and cavalry was quickly set up, which showed that they were elites with rich combat experience and well-trained training.
Li Tai didn't know that Han Xiong and others had already arrived and made such an arrangement, but he was immediately overjoyed when he saw this. He ordered the people in front of him to avoid both sides of the road and immediately dismounted and put on armor, while the light cavalry in the back continued to go inward. Moving forward, he quickly completed the switching of the infantry and cavalry battle formations, and then led his troops to fight out from the inside along the river valley.
At this time, the pursuers of the Northern Qi Dynasty were forming formations on the river bank. Seeing the Wei army approaching, they met them with infantry formations. At the same time, the rear cavalry penetrated along the river valley to ensure that the rear route would not be blocked by ambushes. They were prepared to fight and fight. retreat.
Soon the infantry soldiers from both sides were fighting together. Each was an elite group, and the battle situation became somewhat stalemate for a while.
As the main attacker, the Jingzhou army struggled to kill the enemy in front of them, but under the stubborn resistance of the Qi army, it was difficult to break the enemy's battle formation for a while. As the battle situation in the infantry formation became stalemate, both sides invariably used their fine cavalry to attack the flanks of the enemy's infantry formation. Of course, another cavalry fight was inevitable.
This time, Li Tai did not join the battle in person to kill the enemy. Instead, he joined Han Xiong and others in the rear who were ambushing and responding. Han Xiong said with shame: "After the last general, General Wei, conveyed the order to the general, Immediately lead the troops north from Xin'an, and the front troops arrived at Mangling the day before yesterday. However, due to the small number of troops, they could only make a bluff and failed to establish a solid army here. "
"General Han, don't worry. I know that your troops have been in a very difficult situation in recent years. I am very grateful that you can come and cooperate this time to protect me from being bullied when I enter the thieves' territory!"
After Li Tai heard what Han Xiong said, he smiled and comforted him.
In fact, this meeting did not go through careful discussions in advance. It was just that Li Tai formed an idea and reported to Han Xiong with Wei Xuan. However, even if his troops could successfully and timely arrive at Xishui, he actually could not Guaranteed. Despite this, Han Xiong still led his troops here without hesitation, naturally because of his great trust in Li Tai.
"Alas, the general said this, and the junior general and others are even more ashamed. In the past, the general entered the country to fight against thieves and made brilliant achievements. On the day he left, although mediocrity caused trouble and the situation was no longer the best, he still managed to maintain his business. There is room. But the Eastern Bandit Masters are coming back, and they will eventually lose their territory and retreat continuously, and all the newly restored lands will fall..."
When Han Xiong said this, his expression became even more disappointed.
Li Tai saw that his hair and beard were gray and his figure was much thinner than when they parted before. It was obvious that he had been suffering for the past few years. He even did not hide his contempt for Zhao Gui and Yuwen Hu, who had been defeated here before. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart and said, "Although General Han and others are heroes of the place, the enemy is attacking with the whole country's strength. It is understandable that they are defeated with a small number of people." As he spoke, thunder suddenly roared in the sky, and it seemed that it was going to rain. Li Tai took a look at the battle situation in the valley ahead. It was still difficult to determine the outcome, and the fighting spirit of both sides was very tenacious. I am afraid that it will be difficult to end the battle in a short time. Thinking that the soldiers had traveled day and night to arrive here, their physical exhaustion must have reached a limit. If they continued to fight in the rain, they might be plagued by diseases under the freezing autumn rain. Even if the army carried enough prescriptions and medicines to deal with epidemics and colds, it would certainly greatly affect the next action. So Li Tai wanted to end this battle as soon as possible. However, seeing that the enemy was still fighting bravely, Li Tai had to sigh at the strong fighting spirit of the Northern Qi army. They had been ambushed and threatened before, but they were still able to maintain their fighting spirit after recovering. They were indeed very difficult opponents.
Just looking at the enemy's bravery, it would be difficult to end the battle quickly. Han Xiong only had a few hundred soldiers here, and most of them were lightly armed and unarmored, so they would not be of much help even if they were put into battle.
The thunder in the sky was getting louder and louder, and it was accompanied by lightning. The whole sky was overcast. This kind of thunderstorm weather was very rare in late autumn. Thinking of the experience of the Western Wei Dynasty's Eastern Expedition in history, Li Tai couldn't help but have some doubts. Could it be that this kind of weather was also the weather BUFF that Gao Yang brought with him?
However, after a brief pause, Li Tai decided to apply this BUFF to himself. He ordered Zhang Shinu to lead more than 100 black-robed soldiers to the top of the rock near the battlefield. Taking advantage of the thunder and lightning, he shouted loudly to the bottom: "This is the mausoleum of Emperor Xuanwu of the Wei Dynasty. You thieves are following the traitor Gao and rebelling against the Wei Dynasty. The heroic spirit of Emperor Xuanwu is furious! General Li obeyed the will of heaven and defeated the thieves. The thunder from heaven will help you to kill the stubborn thieves!"
Li Tai did not lie. The upper reaches of the Chan River was indeed the Jingling Mausoleum of Emperor Xuanwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty. When Dugu Xin recovered Luoyang last year, Yuwen Tai returned with the emperor Yuanbaoju to worship the ancestors' mausoleum. It happened that Hou Jing led his troops to capture Jinyong City. Then Yuwen Tai hurried to fight Hou Jing, which led to the Battle of Heqiao.
It is an eternal truth that thieves are guilty. Even if there is a theoretical basis such as "thieves have their own code of conduct", why not just say "thieves have their own code of conduct"? This shows that thieves are unrighteous after all. Gao Yang stole the country and his subordinates became thieves. At least before his majesty was established, this mentality was generally unavoidable.
Although it was common for regimes to change during the chaotic times of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Northern Wei Dynasty had created a certain orthodox concept after so many years of national prosperity. Therefore, when the soldiers of the Northern Qi Dynasty who were still resisting in the valley heard the shouts of the Wei army accompanied by thunder, they gradually panicked.
There are gods above their heads. At this time, the thunder and lightning above their heads seemed to be accusing them again and again. So gradually, some soldiers lost their courage and began to drag their swords to flee to the rear. In this way, panic quickly spread in the battle formation.
Although the general was also trying his best to maintain the battle formation, he was not Xue Guyan who dared to fight against the thunder. He could only watch the army formation gradually disintegrate and collapse. He could only lead his personal soldiers to quickly leave the battlefield, hoping to gather the defeated people in the rear and then continue to fight back.
Seeing the enemy army defeated, Li Tai secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately ordered 500 elite cavalrymen to chase and kill. As for the soldiers who retreated from the battlefield, they rested for a while, then began to retreat to the valley, and began to set up fences and camp.
If the situation was just like this, it would be a good story of wisely repelling the enemy. However, as the enemy army retreated, the roar of thunder and lightning in the sky gradually stopped, and the thick clouds that had accumulated slowly dispersed, and even a sunset glow fell in the valley.
Li Tai looked at the abnormal and extreme changes in the weather, and couldn't help but complain a few words in his heart, but soon he noticed that Han Xiong's eyes looking at him were slightly different, with awe and a bit of surprise.
Seeing the change in Han Xiong's eyes, Li Tai's heart was moved. Could this brother think that the thunder just now was summoned by himself to repel the enemy?