Fenghou

Chapter 546
Time passed little by little, and every quarter of an hour was a huge torment for Li Cheng. Nearly two hours had passed, but Song Jun hadn't arrived yet. At this time, Guan Shigu stepped forward and said, "The latest news I just got , Chen Qing still hasn’t set off ten miles away, I guess he is waiting for us to run out of food, and now the morale of the brothers is exhausted, tired and hungry, and they are all in order, waiting like this is not an option, it is better to cross the Weihe River and go up!”

"No!"

Yao Bing immediately objected: "It is no small matter for an army of [-] to cross the river, and they will definitely be attacked by him halfway across the river. At this time, we must not act rashly and expose our fighters to the opponent."

Li Cheng nodded. He also thought that crossing the river was not a good way. He pondered for a while and said, "Let the army eat first. If we don't come after dinner, we will continue to march. We still have one day of food, so we can't be delayed any longer." .”

"What if the Song army attacks us at night?" Guan Shigu worried.

Li Cheng had already figured it out, they actually had no choice now.

"If he comes, we will fight him, and if he does not come, we will leave. In short, we cannot be led by his nose. We must take the initiative."

Yao Bing nodded, "There is no other way."

"Actually there is another way."

Guan Shigu pondered for a while and said: "Leave [-] people behind, hold back the enemy army, and the remaining [-] main force quickly withdraw to the east."

Li Cheng sighed softly. This method is actually good, but it is a pity that it is a step too late. It would be great if it was done at noon. It is almost dark now, how long can [-] people support, and the opponent has [-] cavalry!It is very likely that they will be defeated by the opponent one by one.

But Guan Shigu's suggestion makes sense, sacrifice the few to make the majority come true.

Just when Li Cheng was in a dilemma, suddenly a cavalry came to report, "Report to Dutong, the Song army has already arrived, and they are only five miles away from us!"

Li Cheng was taken aback, and hurriedly ordered: "Order the whole army to prepare for battle!"

"Woo—" The puppet Qi army's horn sounded.

At this time, the ground shook slightly, and the galloping of [-] cavalry could be felt several miles away. In the distance, the loess covered the sky and covered the sun, rolling towards us like a high wall. .

This momentum made the puppet Qi soldiers nervous, their legs trembled, and the hand holding the spear trembled slightly.

But soon, the speed of the Song Army cavalry slowed down, getting slower and slower, and finally stopped a mile away from the puppet Qi Army formation.

At this time, the sun had already set and the dusk was dim. The soldiers of the Song Army rested for two hours, had enough food and drink, and were ready to fight at night with the Puppet Qi Army.

This is also the characteristic of Chen Qing's army. They are good at night battles. All soldiers have undergone strict training for night battles. Forty thousand troops lined up in the wilderness.

However, the Song army remained silent and did not take the initiative to attack the puppet Qi army. The two sides confronted each other. Time passed quickly, and the last bright color on the horizon was about to disappear.

Li Chengyi gritted his teeth and shouted: "The archers retreat, the first army, the second army, and the third army are ready to attack!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The war drums sounded like thunder.

The puppet Qi army's [-] crossbowmen retreated, and the [-] spear army rushed up.

Just when the [-] troops were about to attack, there was a panic shout from behind the puppet Qi army, and the [-] cavalry led by Yang Zaixing came from behind.

The puppet Qi army panicked, and the ranks were in chaos. Li Cheng shouted anxiously: "Order General Guan to lead the left wing to go up, hold it for me!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The drums of the Song Army sounded, and Chen Qing was waiting for this moment. He held up Fang Tian's painted halberd and shouted: "This is the battle to break the enemy, kill!"

"Kill!"

Thirty thousand cavalry suddenly mobilized and rushed towards the middle army of the puppet Qi army.

Li Cheng shouted: "The archers are ready!"

At this time, the puppet Qi army was flanked by the Song army, and the morale of the army was in turmoil. A general shouted: "Qi Dutong, the archers have retreated just now, and it may be too late to re-arrange!"

Li Cheng's head was as big as a fight, so he had to order: "The spear army will fight with me!"

He personally led an army of [-] spears to fight, and Chen Qing ordered in a deep voice: "Avoid its sharp edge, attack its two wings!"

'Woo!Woo!Woo! The horn sounded continuously, and the [-] cavalry suddenly separated to the two sides, hitting directly on both sides of the [-] army, while the [-] Song infantry came up with shields and short spears, and violently collided with the enemy.

The puppet Qi army was tired and hungry, their morale was low, and they encountered extremely unaccustomed night battles. They couldn't withstand the impact of the Song army's cavalry at all. .

The Song army cavalry took the opportunity to shout, "Qi army has escaped! Qi army has escaped!"

The morale of the puppet Qi army was shaken. I don't know how many people escaped in the dark, which caused panic among the soldiers. Tens of ten, hundreds of ten, thousands of thousands, and thousands of thousands were like an avalanche. More and more soldiers fled. Everyone was terrified, scrambling to escape for their lives, and the one hundred thousand army collapsed.

In the wilderness, the soldiers of the puppet Qi army ran wildly, took off their heavy armor, threw away their weapons, and threw away everything that hindered their escape. They just wished they could grow two more legs.

But no matter how the soldiers fled, they couldn't escape the Song Army cavalry. The Song Army cavalry chased them up and shouted: "If the Han people don't kill the Han people, those who surrender will not die!"

In desperation, countless soldiers knelt down and raised their hands to surrender. Li Cheng, under the desperate protection of hundreds of his own soldiers, made a bloody road and fled eastward desperately. .

Li Cheng ran for more than forty miles in one breath, and more than a dozen horses vomited blood and fell to the ground. Everyone had to stop their horses to rest. They were exhausted and sat down in front of a pine forest.

Li Cheng suddenly looked up to the sky and cried loudly, a hundred thousand troops!How could he explain to the emperor when the whole army was destroyed like this?
He suddenly pulled out his sword and wanted to kill himself. The soldiers had been on guard for a long time, and they rushed up and grabbed his sword. The commander of the soldiers, Zou Huang, knelt down and cried, "It's not that all failures in this battle are incompetent. It's because the opponent is strong. Even the Xixia army has been defeated by him several times, even if Wan Yanchang came to command, they will definitely be defeated."

Everyone persuaded him one after another, and Li Changchang sighed, "Chen Qing's wings have been formed, and he will become a major disaster on Shaanxi Road in the future. What can I do?"

At this time, another group of cavalry came rushing from a distance. There were more than a thousand people, guarding a group of scribes. The leader was Yao Bing, his aide. Yao Bing did not participate in the battle. , Standing outside the formation, thus escaped a catastrophe.

Li Chengying stepped forward and asked, "Did you see General Guan?"

Yao Bing shook his head, "I can't see anything in the dark night, no news at all?"

Li Cheng had no choice but to say: "Sir, rest first!"

Li Cheng gathered more than a thousand cavalry, and ordered the soldiers to cut up the meat and boil soup of a dozen exhausted horses to satisfy their hunger.

Yao Bing stepped forward and said, "Think about it on the way to humble position. If I were Chen Qing, I would definitely send troops to capture Weishui City and cut off our retreat."

Li Cheng nodded, "This is indeed in line with Chen Qing's work. He has never leaked water. Since he sent people to sneak into the barracks and burn our food and grass, he is planning to fight us. Even their bravery at night shows that they have been specially trained. It shows that he has far-sightedness, and I am indeed inferior to him, and I am convinced that I have lost this battle."

After a pause, he continued: "I also agree with Mr.'s judgment. The Weishui River is probably lost. We really need to make preparations to retreat from Deshun Prefecture."

At noon, Li Cheng gathered another four or five thousand defeated troops. At the same time, he got the exact news that the Weishui Army City had been occupied by the Song Army, and they immediately built a pontoon bridge to evacuate to the northeast. Only six thousand soldiers escaped.

As the sky gradually dawned, teams of soldiers were escorted by Song Army cavalry to Chengji County. In this battle, the Puppet Qi Army suffered nearly [-] casualties, and thousands of people escaped. In addition to other sporadic deaths, the last [-] soldiers He became a prisoner of war of the Song army.

A group of [-] prisoners of war were escorted to the gate of Chengji County. At this time, a soldier was alone, and Song Jun was about to whip his head. The soldier quickly clasped his fists and said, "General, calm down, I have important information to report." !"

"What information?" Song Jundu's whip stopped in the air.

The soldier pointed at the team and said, "The third row, the one with the yellow hat is our deputy capital commander!"

The Song army was overjoyed, and hurriedly reported to Liu Cui who was next to him. Liu Cui was taken aback, and hurriedly led hundreds of cavalry to rush up, and stopped the [-]-man surrendering team.

Liu Cui looked at it for a while, then pointed to one of them, "You, come out!"

The man took off his yellow hat, sighed, and said, "Nephew, your father was never so rude to me. No matter how bad I was, I taught you how to shoot arrows for three months. Isn't it worth asking?"

This person is Guan Shigu, the deputy general of the Puppet Qi Army.

(End of this chapter)