A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 88 Suzhou, Southern Elegy

The battlefield soon fell silent. As the drum beat ended, both sides had already formed their formations and were facing each other from a distance.

For a time, the entire land fell into silence.

It didn't last long before a drumbeat was heard from the Northern Army. Two black spots rushed out from the wings of the Northern Army and moved rapidly towards the Southern Army.As they approached, the black spots slowly dispersed and became two sharp cones, and finally converged and turned into an overwhelming black line!
"Boom, boom, boom..."

The Mongolian cavalry, the Shunyi cavalry and the Duoyan guards began to charge at the same time. Nearly [-] cavalry rumbled, waving their sabers and shouting, advancing under the leadership of Yan Keng.

The horses' hooves stepped on them, and the yellow sand rolled up all over the sky, adding even more power to the cavalry.

The vanguard of the Confederate army was arrayed neatly, with countless long spears pointed at the sky, reflecting the sunlight and shining with a sharp sheen.

The soldiers in the first row swallowed their saliva, and there was a hint of sweat on their palms. Although they were wearing the best armor in the army, and although they had received rewards in advance that they had not been able to get for several years, in front of this god of death , they still couldn't suppress the fear in their hearts.

"Fire arrows!" A general shouted, and a dense rain of arrows suddenly blocked the sky and surged towards the Northern Army cavalry.

"Jingle-ding-ding-ding-ding."Along with a crisp sound, arrows fell under the horse, and arrows got stuck in the gaps in the armor. Although this wave of offensive by the Confederate army was majestic, not many soldiers were actually hit by arrows. There are even fewer soldiers who hit the vital point and landed on the spot.

At the front were the heavy cavalry. They were fully armored, and even their horses were armored. There were about two thousand of them, and they blocked the first wave of the most violent attack for the light cavalry at the rear.

As the cavalry approached, the firecrackers also began to roar. This time, soldiers finally began to fall.

But this can no longer stop the cavalry approaching.

The horse's hooves were raised and stepped on the shield. Some soldiers could not support themselves and were crushed under the shield on the spot, with broken bones and tendons.

Some iron cavalry rushed into the formation and charged rampantly. The sophisticated armor could block the slashing of the sharp weapons, but it could not stop the heavy impact. Some soldiers felt severe pain in their internal organs. They were vomiting blood and had broken ribs.

The forward heavy cavalry crashed into the formation with unparalleled impact, knocking down a large number of soldiers. The light cavalry behind them followed. The Confederate front army could not resist it, and the soldiers began to flee without their helmets and armor. .

Only when they truly faced death did they realize how ridiculous the determination they thought they had to die was. Looking at the soldiers around them who had been trampled to pulp, or with only half of their bodies left, still crawling with their five fingers, No one wants to fight anymore.

Although some cavalrymen ran into spearheads and were pierced by the sharp spearheads on the spot, more horses trampled the enemy's formation, leaving behind bursts of screams and cries.

The front line of the Confederate army was in an unstoppable rout. The Northern army was overwhelming. After penetrating the front line, it actually rushed towards the Chinese army. This was to defeat the Confederate army!
But when the Northern Army penetrated the Southern Army, what appeared in front of them were countless arrows and muskets.

The heavy cavalry were pulled behind, wearing heavy armor. They had exhausted all their strength in this charge. The horses' breathing became heavier and their speed obviously slowed down.

Those in front were all light cavalry, and they could not withstand such an attack.

The sound of gunfire was mixed with the sound of arrows piercing the air, followed by the sound of large numbers of falling horses. Hundreds of Mongolian cavalry immediately fell to the ground.

"Charge!" Yan Keng seemed a little unwilling, and he issued the order again.

However, the cavalry charge was exhausted, and without the defense of the heavy cavalry, large areas of the light cavalry fell to the ground.

After heavy losses, he was forced to order a retreat.

Li Jinglong's two wings attacked quickly, and the two sides fought in a melee.

Zhu Di's main force also pressed forward, and most of them were already on the battlefield.

Nearly a million people fought bloody battles on the battlefield in front of Suzhou.

Without tactics, all that remains is endless fighting.

The two sides fought vigorously from day to dusk.

As the sun set, the battlefield was already covered with corpses. The soldiers' armors were covered in blood, both from their enemies and from their own, and their swords were full of gaps.

Both sides were exhausted.

"The rebel army has been defeated!" At this moment, a shout of joy suddenly came, which shocked Li Jinglong, who was anxiously watching the battle from behind.Li Jinglong climbed to the heights, and he saw that the Northern Army on the front line was retreating, the flags fell, and the soldiers dropped their armor and retreated hastily.

This is the sign of defeat!
Overjoyed, he made a judgment: the Northern Army had been defeated, and at this time it was time to take advantage of the situation and expand the results.

He personally mounted his horse and shouted loudly:

"Soldiers, the Northern Army has been defeated, follow me and charge!"

Li Jinglong's Chinese army finally moved.

Zhu Di also saw this scene. He saw that the tens of thousands of Chinese troops who were originally in a neat formation and could not break through began to move and the formation began to become chaotic.

A smile spread across his lips.

With the thundering sound of cannons, the Northern Army, which had already begun to retreat, suddenly turned around. What puzzled the Southern Army was that the fear on their faces was no longer the same, replaced by cruel smiles.

Zhu Di's central army also moved, and it was divided into three groups——

Rushing straight into the battlefield, they injected fresh power into the already exhausted Northern Army.

Two waves rushed straight towards Li Jinglong's central army!
On the left is Zhu Gaoxu, his face is full of bloodthirsty light. Facing the upcoming fight, he does not feel fear, he only feels excited!

On the right is Zhang Yu. He is much calmer. He does not charge forward like Zhu Gaoxu. He stays behind the cavalry and controls the overall situation.

Seeing two armies rushing toward him, Li Jinglong was so frightened that he felt like he was dead!He quickly ordered to defend in place!

But once the army moves, how can it be stopped so easily?

The soldiers inevitably fell into chaos.

With an unstable foothold, even if this Chinese army is the elite of the Southern Court, it will be difficult to withstand the charge of the elite cavalry of the North.

The cavalry rushed straight into the formation and started killing.

Collapse, collapse, wailing sounds everywhere, discarded objects everywhere, the Chinese soldiers no longer obeyed orders.As they ran, they threw down all their armor, swords, flags and other things that would hinder their escape. They had completely lost their will to resist.

The fall of Li Jinglong's banner became the last straw on the back of the Southern Army, and the front line also collapsed.

The Northern Army finally made it to the end. They picked up the butcher's knife and followed the Southern Army, killing the fleeing enemy troops wantonly. The cavalry galloped, the sabers passed by, and lives disappeared one by one.

Li Jinglong didn't even dare to enter Suzhou City because he knew that with the defeat, Suzhou would definitely be in danger.

The garrison of Suzhou had no intention of opening the city. Strategically speaking, it would cause enemy troops to flood into the city. Politically speaking, he had already planned to join the Ming Dynasty.

After Suzhou is the Bianhe River. The soldiers could only run along the river and were hunted and killed by the Northern Army cavalry. Large numbers of soldiers knelt down and surrendered.

Li Jinglong relied on his fast horse to escape from the clutches of the Northern Army.He fled all the way south to Lingbi, where he gathered up the defeated army, leaving only more than [-] troops.

Only then did he realize that he was not Zhou Yafu of the past, but Zhao Kuo of Changping.

The opponent is Zhu Di, a battle-hardened general. The people who can really go against him should be those veterans of the old era.

In this new era, among the new generation of generals, he is the most dazzling star.
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"We have no way of knowing Li Jinglong's true strength, because just like Zhao Kuo, he met the top general of that era when he first set foot on the battlefield."

"But from the clues of the war, we can see that at least in the early stages of the war, the Ming army under his command did not make any major mistakes. You can say that he was not a first-class commander, but you can never say that he was useless. general."

"In any case, the defeat of Suzhou meant that the southern court lost the initiative in the war, and the subsequent Battle of Lingbi sung the end of Jianwen's rule."

——"Jia Jianming's taste of the Ming Dynasty"

(End of this chapter)